SPEECH 


HON.  JAMES  H.  BELL, 

OF  THE  TEXAS  SUPREME  COURT. 


DEL.1YERED  AT  TOE  CAPITOL,  0.\  SATUROAY,  I>EC.   l§t,   1S60, 


CORRESPONDENCE. 

Austin,  Pec,  6th,  1860. 

Hon.  Jas.  H.  Bell:    Dear  Sir— The 
undersigned  would  respectfully  request 
a  copy  of  your  speech,  delivered  in  this 
city,  on  the  1st  inst.,  for  publication. 
Very  Repectfully  Yours, 

M.  C.  Hamilton,  Joseph  Walker,  Jas. 
W.  Thomas,  of  Collin;  E.  M.  Pease, 
Francis  M.  White,  F.  T.  Doffaii,  S.  M. 
Swenson,  A.  B.  Norton,  J.  J.  Dickson, 
of  Collin;  N.  W.  Townes,  of  Lamar;  J. 
L.  fiaynes,  E.B.Turner,  N.  G.Shelley, 
Geo.  Hancock,  J.  M.  Hays,  John  T. 
Price,  F.  W.  Chandler,  M.  A.  Tavlor, 
W.  8.  Rowland,  Saml.  Harris,  W.  P.  de 
Normandie. 

Austin,  Dec,  10th,  1860. 
Messtr.  M.   C.  Hamilton,  J.  Walker, 
J.  W.  Thomas,  E.  M.  Pease,  Francis 
M.  White,  F.  T.  Duffau,  S.  M.  Swen- 
son,  a.  B.  Norton,  J.  J.  Dickson,  N. 
W.  Townes,  and  others  : 
Gentlemen: — Your  favor  requesting 
a  copy  of  the   speech  delivered  by  me 
on  the  1st  inst.,   for   publication,   has 
been   placed  in  my  hands.     I  am  en- 
abled  to  comply  with  your  request  by 
availing  myself  of   very  full   notes   of 
the  speech,  taken  by  Hon.  E.  W.  Cave 
when  it  was  delivered.     In  furnishing 
a  copy  of  the  speech  for  publication,  I 
do  so,  not  so  much  in  the  hope  that  it 
will   exert   an  influence  on  the  public 
mind,  favorable  to  the   opinions  which 
are  expressed  in  it,as  from  a  desire  to  let 
Ihe  people  of  Texas  see  for  themselves 
what  I  have  said,   instead   of  leaving 
them  to  form  their  conclusione  from  the 
reports  of  others.    I  spoke  on  the  1st 


inst.,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  fact, 
that  the  expression  of  my  opinions 
would  subject  me  to  te  denounced  as  a 
free-soiler  and  an  abolitionist,  by  those 
who  think  that  the  greatest  political 
offence  of  which  a  man  can  be  guilty, 
is  to  differ  from  them  in  opinion.  I  am 
perfectly  willing  to  take  my  full  share 
of  abuse  from  those  who  wish  to  plunge 
hastily  into  revolution,  and  just  as  much 
more  than  my  share  as  they  may  think 
proper  to  heap  on  me,  if  by  this  means, 
I  can  be  instrumental  in  persuading 
the  people  to  act  with  calmness  and 
moderation  in  this  great  crisis  of  our 
affairs.  My  conviction  is  profound 
that  very  many  of  the  politicians  of  the 
South  are  anxions  to  bring  about  imme- 
diate secession,  not  because  they  think 
we  are  without  remedy  for  existing  evils, 
but  because  they  have  long  thought 
that  the  South  made  a  bad  bargain  in 
forming  the  Union,  and  because  they 
do  not  wish  to  see  it  preserved  on  any 
terms.  These  opinions  are  now  boldly 
avowed,  and  they  are  avowed  for  the 
purpose  of  inducing  the  people  to  close 
their  eyes  to  any  indications  from  the 
North  of  a  willingness  to  do  us  justice. 
My  own  opinion  is  that  the  Union  is 
an  inestimable  blessing  to  all  the  people, 
so  long  as  the  Constitution  can  be  pre- 
served ;  and  that  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom 
to  endeavor  to  preserve  both  theConsti- 
tution  and  the  Union.  I  believe  too,that 
a  sudden  disruption  of  the  Union  will 
bring  universal  distress  on  the  country. 
It  may  be  that  I  am  more  timid  than 
other  men;  but  I  remember  the  declara- 
tion of  Edmund  Burke,  that  "  timidity, 
where  the  welfare  of  one's  conntry  is 
concerned,  is  heroic  virtue."    This  kind 


of  virtue  may  be  out  of  fashion  for  ihe 
present,  but  the  fashions  are  proverbi- 
ally changeable,  and  it  may,  at  some 
future  time,  come  into  fashion  again. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  a  fashion  that  I 
am  willing  to  wear. 

I  do  not  desire,  however,  to  conceal 
that  it  gives  nie  great  paiu  to  find  my- 
self differing  so  much  in  opinion  from  a 
large  number  of  my  old  friends.  I  al- 
lude to  the  people  of  Brazoria,  and  ihe 
surrounding  counties.  I  am  sure  that 
the  interests  of  the  people  of  those 
counties  are  as  dear  to  me  as  the  in- 
terests of  others  can  be  to  any  man. — 
My  attachments  are  in  those  counties. 
I  can  never  iorget  that  I  am  indebted 
to  the  people  of  Brazoria,  and  of  the 
First  Judicial  District,  for  that  sup- 
port and  endorsement  which  procured 
for  me  the  suffrages  of  the  people  of 
Texas  for  the  honorable  office  which  I 
now  hold.  And  I  desire  it  to  be  known 
that  whenever  I  have  reason  to  believe 
that  the  people  vrho  knew  me  in  m}'  boy- 
hood,and^who  have  endorsed  me  as  a  man, 
have  lost  confidence  either  in  my  in- 
tegrity or  my  patriotism,  I  shall  surren- 
der to  the  public  the  trust  which  I  hold 
from  them,  with  greater  alacrity  than 
I  assumed  it.  I  hope  these  observations 
will  not  be  considered  out  of  place 
here. 

I  think  the  people  will  conclude  from 
my  speech  that  I  am  no  Suhmissionist^ 
as  the  cant  phrase  is.  All  those  who 
have  any  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
know  anything  about  my  political  opin- 
ions, know  that  I  have  always  been  a 
States  Plights  man.  My  friends  all 
know  that  I  voted  for  Breckinridge  and 
Lane,  that  I  earnestly  desired  their 
election,  and  that  I  hold  the  political 
opinions  enunciated  in  the  platform 
upon  which  they  run.  It  is  true  that  I 
do  not  regard  the  question  of  the  pro- 
tection  of  slave  property  in  the  terri- 


tories as  a  practical  one,  nor  do  I  believe 
that  the  great  mass  of  the  supporters 
of  Mr.  Breckinridge  so  regarded  it.  I 
feel  our  present  wrongs  and  greivances 
to  say  the  least,  very  sensibly,  and  I 
desire  to  see  a  deliberate  consultation 
of  the  Slave  holding  States,  in  which 
all  feelings  of  party  shall  be  hushed , 
and  in  which  wise  men,  elected  by  the 
people,  shall  speak  the  will  of  the  people. 

I  have  been  informed  that  the  Hon. 
W.  S.  Oldham,  in  a  speech  delivered 
in  this  city  on  Saturday  last,  stated 
that  in  the  course  of  my  speech  on  the 
1st  inst.,  I  read  a  portion  of  a  speech 
made  by  Senator  Trumbull,  in  Spritg- 
field,  Illinois,  without  reading  oilier  por- 
tions of  it.  I  do  not  know  whether 
Judge  Oldham  meant  to  say  that  I  had 
practised  a  fraud  on  my  audience  or  not. 
It  is  dne  to  myself  to  say  that  I  read 
from  the  Weekly  Picayune,  of  the  •24th 
of  November,  every  word  of  Senator 
Trumbull's  speech  which  that  paper  con- 
tained, and  every  word  of  it  which  I 
had  then  seen.  The  Weekly  Picayune 
of  the  1st  of  December,  (the  day  on 
which  I  spoke)  contained  further  por- 
tions of  Senator  Trumbull's  speech, 
which  I  did  not  see  until  my  attention 
was  called  to  them  by  a  friend  after 
Judge  Oldham  spoke  on  Saturday  last. 
When  in  the  course  of  my  speeeh  I 
read  from  Senator  Trumbull's  Spiing- 
field  speech,  I  told  my  audience  that  I 
attached  but  little  importance  to  such 
things — that  it  might  mean  something 
or  it  might  mean  nothing,  and  I  did  not 
incorporate  Mr.  Trumbull's  remarks 
(those  read  by  me)  in  the  copy  of  my 
speech  to  be  furnished  for  publication, 
which  was  already-  written  out  before 
I  heard  of  Judge  Oldham's  remarks. 

I  am,  gentlemen, 

Yery  res'pectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant. 
JAMES  H.  BELL. 


c  fww^^!: 


SPEECH  OE  JUDGE  BELL. 


Fellow-Citizens  : 

It  may  seem  to  you  somewhat  strangre  that 
a  member  of  the  profession  to  which  I  belong, 
accustomed  for  some  years  to  public  speaking 
in  the  discharge  of  professional  duties,  should 
feel  any  embarrassment  on  an  occasion  like 
this.  But  I  do  in  fact  appear  before  you  with 
much  concern.  I  am  not  a  politician.  I  have 
never,  at  any  time,  been  much  fn  the  habit  of 
addressing  my  fellow-citizens  on  political  sub- 
jects. I  feel  that  my  abilities  are  unequal  to 
the  discussion  of  the  great  questions  now  be- 
fore the  country;  and  the  official  position  which 
I  occupy,  makes  me  diffident  about  engaging 
in  the  public  discussion  of  political  questions. 
But  I  have  been  requested  to  address  you,  and  I 
choose  to  comply  with  the  request  becauselthink 
the  times  are  such,  that  every  citizen,  no  mat- 
ter what  may  be  his  position,  may  with  pro- 
priety express  his  opinions,  whenever  he  is  re- 
quested to  do  so,  and  whenever  by  doing  so 
there  is  any  reason  to  hope  that  any  good  may 
be  aceomplished.  These,  fellow-citizens,  are 
no  ordinary  times.  Abraham  Lincoln,  a  sec- 
tional candidate,  has  been  elected  to  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  United  States,  "We  have  arrived 
at  a  momentous  crisis  in  our  history  as  a  na- 
tion. The  cloud  that  appeared  in  the  sky,  not 
so  big  as  a  man's  hand,  when  the  Constitution 
was  adopted,  has  spread,  until  to-day  it  almost 
shuts  out  the  light  of  Heaven,  from  this  fairest 
and  once  happiest  land.  The  stoutest  hearts 
are  now  concerned  for  the  welfare  of  the  Re- 
public, and  tens  of  thousands  of  thoughtful 
and  patriotic  men  are  anxiously  looking  for 
some  ground  of  hope  that  our  Constitutional 
Union,  and  the  peace  of  our  firesides,  may  be 
preserved.  We  do  not  indeed  behold  those 
signs  and  wonders  which  agitated  the  super- 
stitious minds  of  the  Roman  populace.  "  a  lit- 
tle ere  the  mightiest  Julius  fell,"  We  do  not 
see 

"  Fierce,  fiery  varriors  fighting  on  the  cisuds, 
In  ranks  and  squadrons  and  right  form  of  war, 
Which  drizzled  blood  upon  the  Capitol," 

But  we  do  see  signs  of  approaching  convulsion, 
much  more  real.  We  see  section  arrayed 
against  section.  States  against  States.  We 
see  vast  multitudes  of  men  assembled  under 
party  banners.  We  hear  their  loud  hosannas 
over  the  inflammatory  appeals  of  reckless  and 
ambitious  leaders.  We  see  processions  of 
armed  men.  We  hear  the  morning  and  the 
evening  drum  beat.  We  see  friend  arrayed 
against  friend,  brother  against  brother.  All 
over  the  wide  land,  the  voice  of  phssion  drowns 
the  voice  of  reason. 


"  'Tis  like  the  strife  which  currents  wage, 
Where  Orinoco  in  his  pride, 
Rolls  to  the  main,  no  tribute  tido. 
But  'gainst  broad  ocean  urges  far, 
A  rival  sea  of  roaring  war  : 
While,  in  ten  thousand  eddies  driven. 
The  billows  dash  their  foam  to  Heaven, 
And  the  pale  pilot  seeks  in  vain. 
Where  rolls  the  river,  where  the  main." 

In  the  opening  Canto  of  Shelley's  Revolt  of 
Islam,  the  poet  represents,  under  a  splendid  fig- 
ure, the  great  struggle  which  is  continually 
going  on  in  the  world  between  the  principles 
of  good  and  evil.  He  describes  the  sky  as  all 
overcast  with  clouds,  save  one  bright  spot ; 
and  in  the  midst  of  "  the  whirlwind  and  the 
rack;,'  he  shows  us  an  Eagle  and  a  Serpent 
fighting  in  mid-air,  with  a  yawning  ocean  be- 
neath them.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  same 
figure  might  be  aptly  employed  to  represent 
the  relation  which  the  two  great  sections  of 
this  Union  now  sustain  towards  each  other. 
The  North  and  the  South  are  like  the  Eagle 
and  the  Serpent  in  the  fight,  and  anarchy,  civil 
and  servile  war,  is  the  angry  ocean  that  tosses 
high  its  foam-capped  billows  to  engulf  them 
both.  But  is  there  a  blight  spot  in  our  sky? 
For  one,  I  believe  there  is.  Like  Juliet  in  the 
tomb  of  the  Capulets.the  country  seems  to  be  in 
the  embrace  of  death;  but  in  truth, 

"  She  is  net  conquered,  beauty's  ensign  yet 
1$  crimson  in  her  cheek  and  in  her  lip,  j^ 

And  death's  pale  flag  is  not  advanced  there.'*  ? 

But  it  is  not  for  me  to  presume  to  answer  so 
grave  a  question.  Can  our  present  happy  Con- 
stitution of  government  be  preserved  ?  This  is 
the  question.  None  more  momentous  was  ever 
propounded.  The  answer  must  come  from  the 
people;  and  it  is  because  the  people  must  an- 
swer this  question  for  themselves,  that  I  have 
not  yet  despaired  of  the  Republic. 

One  of  the  great  evils  of  the  times,  and  one 
to  which,  in  my  judgment,  we  are  much  indebt- 
ed for  the  existing  condition  of  things  in  the 
country,  is,  that  the  people  have  been  willing 
to  permit  the  politicians  not  only  to  make  is- 
sues for  them,  but  to  pledge  them  beforehand 
to  a  particular  line  of  action.  The  politicians 
have  been  continually  asking  questions,  and 
answering  them  to  each  other;  and  I  am  sorry 
to  say  that  the  people  have  oftentimes,  with 
too  little  reflection,  adopted  their  conclusions. 
Now  while  I  intend  to  be  careful  about  mak- 
ing assertions,  I  shall  nevertheless  make  one, 
and  it  is,  that  upon  this  question,  whether  our 
form  of  government  shall  be  thrown  away  like 
a  worn-out  garment,  or  not,  the  people  will 
claim  the  right  to  aaswer  for  themselves. 
Much  has  been  said,  as  the  fashion  has  of  late 
years  been  to   speak  beforehand,   about  what 


the  people  of  the  Southern  States  \rould  do,  I  ititution.  I  believe  it  to  be  right,  in  a  moral 
in  the  event  of  the  election  of  a  Black  Repub-  point  of  view,  to  hold  slaves;  and  I  believe  the 
lican  President.  The  question  is  upon  us.  mainteaance  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  it 
It  is  no  longer  in  the  distance,  the  theme  of  j  now  exists  in  the  Southern  States  of  this  Un- 
speculation.  It  is  upon  us,  and  presses  with  I  ion,  to  be  of  paramount  necessity  not  only  to 
tremendous  force.  Shall  we  preserve  the  Un-  j  the  social  welfare  and  material  prosperity  of 
ion  of  these  States,  and  our  high  place  amongst  the  States  themselves,  but  also  to  the  prosper- 
the  nations  of  the  earth,  or  shall  national  itv  and  happiness  of  the  civilized  world, 
greatness  and  individual  prosperity,  the  glo-  But  from  the  time  of  the  formation  of  .the  pres- 
rious  memories  of  the  past,  our  fond  hopes  for  |  ent  government,  until  now,  this  institution  has 
the  futnre,  all  that  is  dear  to  the  American  been  the  subject  about  which  the  people  of  the 
heart,  iivA  the*  American  name  itself,  be  sacri-  \  South  have  been  the  most  sensitive  and  the 
ficed  upor.  the  altar  of  sectional  jealousy,  and  '  most   easily   inflamed.     And    in   my  humble 


ultimately  buried  in  a  common  oblivion? 
These  are  the  questions;  and  when  I  come  to 
discuss  them,  the  great  truth  so  eloquently  an- 
nounced by  Mr.  Webster,  rushes  upon  my  rec- 


opinion  it  has  happened  that  a  kind  of  ficti- 
tious public  sentiment  has  been  manufactured 
in  the  South,  which  m  its  turn,  has  give  n  rise 
to  a  morbid  feeling  on  the  subject  of  slavery. 


oUection,  that  "  when    public  bodies  are  to  be  i  What  1  mean  is,  that  men  of  northern  birch 
addressed  on  moraentous  occasions,  when  great  \  and  education  have  continually  come  amongst 


interests  are  at  stake,  and  strong  passions  ex- 
cited, nothing  is  valuable  in  speech  farther 
than  as  it  is  connected  with  high  intellectual 
and   moral    endowments  ;  "  that   "  the  graces 


us,  who  have  feared  that  ihey  might  possibly 
be  suspected  of  being  less  friendly  to  the  insti- 
tution than  those  of  us  who  are  native  here, 
and  who,  in  order  to  ward  off  all  such  suspi- 


taught  in  the  schools,  the  costly  ernaments  cion,  have  taken  great  pains  to  proclaim  a  most 
and  studied  contrivances  of  speech,  shock  and  superlative  admiration  of  the  institution,  and 
disgust  men,  when  their  own  lives,  and  the  the  pleasure  it  would  give  them  to  hang  up  to 
fate  of  their  wives,  their  children,  and  their  j  a  limb  those  canting  scoundrels  in  the  Northern 


country,  hang  on  the  decision  of  the  hour."- 
The  present  hour — thanks  be  to  God,  who  I 
humbly  trust  has  not  yet  wholly  deserted  us — 
the  present  hour  calls  for  no  such  decision  ; 
and  I  have  not  the  vanity  to  suppose  that 
much  can  depend  on  what  I  may  say.  Yet  I 
feel  that  the  question  before  me  is  of  the  great- 
est possible  magnitude,  and  that  it  becomes  me 
to  speak,  not  for  your  applause,  not  to  please 
the  ears  of  this  audience,  but  to  speak  with 
candor,  with  sincerity,  the  truth,  and  nothing 
but  the  truth,  according  to  the  honest  convic- 
tions of  my  heart  and  judgment.  And  I  shall 
speak  freely  and  plainly  too;  for  where  the 
welfare  of  Texas  is  concerned,  I  feel  that  I 
have  a  right  to  speak  with  freedom.  Her  in- 
terests are  as  dear  to  my  heart  as  to  that  of 
any  man  that  lives.  I  was  born  on  her  bosom, 
and  I  love  her  with  a  son's  devotion.  And  if 
the  day  shall  ever  come  when  I  cannot  stand 
np  in  my  native  State,  and  speak  my  opinions 
fully  and  freely,  then  I  shall  feel  that  it  is  time 
lor  ns  to  hush  the  boast  that  we  are  the  most 
free  and  favored  people  of  the  earth — then  I 
shall  quit  the  land  of  my  love,  and  seet  un- 
der some  other  sky, 
my  grief. 

But,  fellow-citizens,  the  questions  before  us 
are  not  only  of  the  greatest  possible  magni- 
tude— they  involve  also  considerations  of  the 
greatest  possible  delicacy  ;  and  this  is  because 
the  agitation  which  distracts  the  country  has, 
ior  its  turning  point,  the  institution  of  African 
slavery.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  existence  of 
this  institution  is  the  primary  cause  of  the  agi- 
tation. But  before  I  pass  on,  I  wish  to  say  one 
word,  not  about  the  institution  of  slavery  it- 
self, but  about  the  tone  of  public  feeling  in  the 
Southern  States,  growing  out  of  the  existence 
of  the  institution.  And  to  prevent  the  possi- 
bility of  being  misunderstood,  I  wish  to  say 
that  no  man  feels,  more  strongly  than  I  do, 
habsolute  necescity  of   main  taining  this    in- 


states who  do  not  like  Slavery  and  wish 
to  see  it  abolished.  These  things  would  be 
merely  amusing,  if  Southern  men  themselves, 
who  have  inherited  their  slaves  from  their  fath- 
ers, or  purchased  them  with  the  accumulations 
of  their  own  industry,  were  not  so  foolish  as 
to  think  that  they  ought  to  eaj  at  least  as 
much  in  behalf  of  slavery  as  men  just  arrived 
from  Maine  or  Ma8sachu*etts.  And  so  we  wit- 
ness a  continual  laudation  of  slavery,  which 
amounts  almost  to  an  agitation  in  our  midst, 
resulting  from  the  rivalry  of  these  different 
classes  ol  persons  in  expressing  the  ardor  of 
their  attachment  to  it,  and  their  desire  to  see 
its  blessings  extended.  But  in  this  kind  of  ri- 
valry, the  Southern  born  man  is  always  thrown 
into  the  shade  by  his  Northern  friend  ;  as  John 
Randolph  said  that  his  old  neighbor,  who  ad- 
ded seven  buckshot  to  every  cartridge  at  the 
Battle  of  Guildford,  and  drew  a  fine  sight' on 
his  man,  would  have  to  be  content  to  be  called 
a  Tory,  by  the  patriots  who  were  then  coming 
over  from  the  jails  of  France  and  England.  I 
mean  nothing  offensive  to  any  one.     There  are 

_^       _^  a  great  many  sensible  men  of  Northern   birth 

place  where  I  can  hide  j  who  come  amongst  us,  to  whom  these  remarks 
have  no  application.  But  I  hazard  nothing  in 
saying,  that  as  a  general  rule,  next  to  your 
street-corner  politician,  (for  I  always  except 
him)  the  man  who  makes  the  most  noise  about 
slavery, is  the  man  who  has  just  emigrated  from 
a  non-siaveholding  State;  and  the  longer  such  a 
I  man  resides  in  the  South,  and  the  more  he  be- 


comes identified  with  the  institution  of  slavery, 
the  less  he  is  heard  to  say  about  it,  for  when 
he  has  proved  himself  to  be  a  friend  to  the  in- 
stitution, he  no  longer  feels  it  necessary  to  be 
continually  proclaiming  himself  its  friend. 

But  I  said  that  I  do  not  regard  the  existence 
of  the  institution  of  Slavery  as  the  primary 
cause  of  the  agitation  which  threatens  to  des- 
troy the  peace  of  the  country.  I  think  the 
cause  lies  further  back,  and  is  to  be  found  it 


that  spirit  of  party  which  prevails  to  a  greater 
or  less  e"xtent  in  all  free  governments.  This 
spirit  of  party  has  always  manifested  itself  un- 
der every  form  of  government,  and  has  been 
found  strong  enough  at  times  to  shake  them 
all.  In  despotic  andmonarchcial  governments 
this  spirit  does  not  so  readily  find  opportunity 
to  develope  itself  by  uniting  men  in  support  of 
particular  measures  or  a  certain  line  of  policy. 
In  despotic  governments  its  operations  are 
generally  concealed,  until  of  a  sudden,  some 
terrible  blow  is  struck.  In  governments  less 
despotic,  this  spirit  sometimes  manifests  itself 
in  the  wars  which  are  maintained  by  titled 
leaders,  such  as  were  the  long  struggles  be- 
tween the  rival  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster 
in  England.  Sometimes  it  displays  itself  in 
tumultuous  and  rebellious  levies,  such  as  those 
beaded  by  Jack  Cade  and  Wat  Tjler,  in  the 
same  Kingdom.  But  under  free  governments 
the  spirit  of  party  is  ever  active  and  manifest, 
and  is  to  some  extent  inseparable  from  every 
department  and  operation  of  government.  And 
it  is  our  misfortune  that  circumstances  have 
inevitably  conspired  to  the  formation  of  parties 
in  the  Union,  with  reference  to  an  interest 
which  is  confined  to  less  than  half  the  States, 
which  is  the  greatest  interest  of  those  Spates 
ia  which  it  exists,  and  which  is  in  its  nature, 
the  most  sensitive  of  all  interests  ;  thus  leading 
to  the  array  of  one  section  of  the  Union  against 
the  other,  and  giving  to  the  conflicts  of  party, 
the  greatest  possible  bitterness  and  passion. 

I  propose  to  allude  very  briefly  to  the  pro- 
gress of  party  spirit  in  the  country,  and  to 
show  how  it  has  come  at  last  to  concentrate  all 
its  violence  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  ^  The 
facts  to  which  I  shall  advert  are  familiar^  to 
most  of  you,  but  I  desire  to  fix  your  attention 
on  them  for  a  moment. 

The  discussions  in  the  Federal  Convention 
which  preceded  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu- 
tioa,  necessarily  developed  the  conflicting  in- 
terests of  the  slaveholding  and  non-slavehold- 
iog  States.  Those  discussions,  however,  were 
conducted  with  as  little  beat  as  possible,  and 
led  to  no  array  of  parties,  aa  such,  in  the  Con- 
vention. 

In  the  debates  on  the  basis  of  representation 
in  the  Federal  Congress,  which  were  much 
protracted,  the  slaveholding  States  acted  to- 
gether, and  claimed  that  their  slaves  should' 
be  represented.  This  claim  was  allowed,  be- 
cause it  was  expected  by  all,  that  the  revenues 
for  the  sunport  of  the  General  Government 
would  be  raised  partly  by  direct  taxation,  and 
as  slaves  formed  a  large  proportion  of  the 
property  of  some  of  the  States,  and  would  have 
to  be  taxed,  it  was  conceded  that  they  should 
form  an  elfment  in  the  basis  of  representation. 
When  the  government  was  launched  under 
the  present  Constitution,  the  men  of  the  revo- 
lution were  in  the  public  ofiices.  They  felt 
the  greatest  possible  solicitude  that  their  new 
experiment  in  government  should  not  be  a 
failure.  They  were  men  of  wisdom  and  mod- 
eration. They  had  stood  by  one  another  in 
perilous  times.  They  had  inaugurated  a 
mighty  revolution  and  carried  it  on  to  a  tri- 
umphant close.    It  was  now  to  be  seen  whether 


or  not  they  had  labored  in  vain.  They  ac- 
cordingly strove,  as  much  as  possible,  to  soften 
the  asperities  of  party  strife,  and  to  smother 
sectional  jealousy.  They  set  themselves  to  the 
task,  by  a  wise  policy,  of  reviviDgf  the  energies 
of  the  country,  crippled  by  a  protracted  war, 
and  of  developing  the  national  resources.  The 
question  of  slavery  came  up  during  the  first 
Congress,  was  fully  debated,  and  was  put  to 
rest  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  jealousies  had 
sprung  up  between  the  Northern  and  Southern 
States,  and  these  jealousies  received  farther 
developement  from  the  Embargo  and  Non-Im- 
portation Acts  of  Mr.JeflFerson's  administration, 
which  fell  heavily  on  the  commercial  interests 
of  the  North,  and  were  comparatively  little  felt 
by  the  agricultural  communities  of  the  South. 
The  war  of  1812  was  then  undertaken  under 
the  lead  of  Southern  Statesmen,  and  was  very 
unpopular  with  the  people  of  the  North.  Dur- 
ing the  continuance  of  the  war,  manufactures 
sprung  up  in  the  Northern  States,  and  were 
greatly  fostered  by  the  Protective  Tariff  Sys- 
tem ,  which  was  adopted  at  the  close  of  the  war . 
Under  the  operation  of  the  Protective  System 
it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  agricultural 
interests  of  the  South,  and  the  commercial  and 
manufacturing  interests  of  the  North  could  not 
be  fostered  by  the  same  course  of  legislation. 
The  Southern  States  had  become  large  expor- 
ters. Their  great  interest  was  agriculture. 
The  Northern  States  were  now  fully  embarked 
in  manufactures.  Commerce  and  manufactures 
therefore  constituted  the  great  interests  of  the 
Northern  States.  This  condition  of  things  led 
quickly  to  the  formation  of  parties  with  refer- 
ence to  it.  Immediately  the  question  of 
slavery  became  involved,  and  the  whole  coun- 
try was  startled  by  the  portentous  aspect  which 
it  assumed.  And  why?  It  was  because  the 
Northern  and  Southern  States  were  at  variance 
upon  great  questions  of  political  economy,  and 
it  was  felt  that  the  admission  of  a  slave  State 
into  the  Union,  would  strengthen  the  Southern 
section  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  At  this  criti- 
cal moment  Missouri  applied  for  admission  in- 
to the  Union,  bringing  in  her  hand  a  slavery 
constitution.  It  was  like  the  application  of  Ihe 
torch  to  a  virgin  prairie  in  midwinter.  The  whole 
country  was  iustantly  in  a  blaze.  In  order  to 
show  that  the  controversy  which  attended  the 
admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union,  was  a 
contest  for  political  power  between  the  North 
and  the  South,  I  beg  leave  to  read  a  passage 
from  the  Speech  of  Rufus  King,  the  distin- 
guished Senator  from  New  York,  who  was  the 
champion  of  the  North  in  the  Senate.  Mr. 
King  said  : 

"If  three-fifths  of  the  slaves  are  virtually 
represented,  or  their  owners  obtain  a  dispro- 
portionate power  in  legislation,  and  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
why  should  not  other  property  be  virtually 
represented,  and  its  owners  obtain  a  like  power 
in  legislation,  and  in  the  choice  of  President? 
Property  is  not  confined  in  slaves,  but  exists  in 
houses,  stores,  ships,  capital  in  trade  and  man- 
ufactures. To  secure  to  the  owners  of  proper- 
ty in  slaves  greater  political  power  than  ia  al- 


6,;. 


lowed  to  the  owners  of  other  and  equivalent 
property,  seems  to  be  contrary  to  our  theory  of 
the  equality  of  personal  rights,  inasmuch  as 
the  citizens  of  some  States  are  thereby  entitled 
to'other  and  greater  political  power,  than  the 
citizens  of  other  States.  The  present  House 
of  Representatives  consists  of  one  hundred  and 
eighty  one  members,  which  are  apportioned 
among  the  States  in  the  ratio  of  one  representa< 
tive  for  every  thirty-five  thousand  federal  mem- 
bers, which  are  ascertained  by  adding  to  the 
whole  number  of  free  persons,  three-fifths  of 
the  slaves.  According  to  the  last  census  the 
whole  number  of  slaves  within  the  United 
States  was  1,181,364,  which  entitled  the  States 
possessing  the  same  to  twenty  representatives, 
and  twenty  presidential  electors  more  than 
they  would  be  entitled  to  were  the  slaves  ex- 
cluded. By  the  last  census  Virginia  contained 
582,10-i  free  persons,  and  395,518  slaves.  In 
any  of  the  States  where  slavery  is  excluded, 
582,104  free  persons  would  be  entitled  to  elect 
only  sixteen  representatives,  while  in  Ya.,  582,- 
104  free  persons,  by  the  addition  of  three-fifths 
of  her  slaves,  become  entitled  to  elect,  and  do 
in  fact  elect  twenty-three  representrtives,  being 
seven  additional  ones  on  account  of  her  slaves. 
Thus  while  35,000  free  persons  are  requisite  to 
elect  one  representative  in  a  State  where 
slavery  is  prohibited,  25,559  free  persons  in 
Virginia  may,  and  do  elect  a  representative, 
so  that  five  free  persons  in  Virginia  have  as 
much  power  in  the  choice  of  a  representative 
to  Congress,  and  in  the  appointment  of  Presi- 
dential electors,  as  seven  free  persons  in  any 
of  the  States  in  which  slavery  does  not  exist." 

Now  fellow-citizens,  in  this  statement  thus 
made  by  Mr.  King,  will  be  found  in  my  judg- 
ment, the  foundation  and  substance  of  the 
opposition  which  a  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  North,  have  manifested  to  tne  extension  of 
slavery,  and  to  the  admission  of  slave  States 
into  the  Union.  It  has  not  been  so  much  an 
opposition  to  slavery  as  a  system  of  servitude, 
or  a  form  of  labor,  as  it  has  been  an  opposi- 
tion to  the  political  power  and  influ&nce  of 
slavery  in  the  operations  of  this  governm  e^t 
And  it  is  in  this  point  of  view  that  the  in'tita- 
tioD  of  slavery  has  been  made  the  battle  cry, 
so  to  speak  of  political  parties  in  this  country. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  has  not  been, 
all  the  while,  a  body  of  men  in  the  Northern 
States  opposed  to  the  institution  of  slavery 
itself,  and  who,  regardless  of  the  obligation  of 
the  Constitution,  have  assailed  the  institution 
in  every  manner  pofsible.  But  while  these 
men,  the  abolitionists,  have  possessed  some 
local  influence,  and  have  controlled  to  some 
extent,  the  legislation  of  some  of  the  States, 
they  have  never  been  strong  enough  to  in- 
fluence the  National  elections.  But  I  will 
allude  more  particularly  to  this  abolition  party 
after  a  while. 

I  wish  to  call  attention,  fellow- citizens,  to 
what  has  been  the  course  of  the  South  on  this 
question  of  slavery,  that  we  may  properly 
understand  how  it  has  grown  to  be  the  con- 
trolling question  in  the  politics  of  the  country. 
In  the  year  1838,  Mr.  Calhoun  presented 
Resolutions  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  in  the 


Senate  of  the  United  States.  I  am  not  oce  of 
those  who  mention  the  name  of  Mr.  Calhoun 
with  disrespect.  I  believe  he  was  one  of  the 
great  men  of  this  country  and  of  the  world. 
I  believe  that  he  was  a  true  patriot — that  he 
ardently  loved  his  country.  I  belive  that  he 
possessed  as  Mr.  Webster  said  in  the  Senate, 
on  the  occasion  of  his  death,  ''  the  basis,  the 
indispensable  basis  of  all  high  character,  un- 
spotted integrity  and  unimpeached  honor."' 
But  I  believe  that  he  had  received  from  nature, 
"  an  intense  and  glowing  mind,''  and  that  h© 
sometimes  went  too  far  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
objects. 

The  only  one  of  the  Resolutions  which  Mr. 
Calhoun  presented  to  the  Senate  in  1838,  to 
which  I  wish  now  to  allude,  was  the  fifth  one 
of  the  series.  It  was  expressed  in  the  follow- 
ing terms. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  intermeddlinc  of  any  Statft  or 
States,  or  tbeir  citizens  to  abolish  slavery  in  this  Dis- 
trict, (meaninj  the  District  of  Columbia)  or  any  of  the 
Territories,  on  the  grouad  or  under  the  pretext  that 
it  is  immoral  or  sintul,  or  the  passage*  of  any  act  or 
measure  of  Congress  with  that  view,  would  be  a 
direct  and  dmn^eroua  attack  on  the  institutions  of  all  the 
slave  holding-  Sfates." 

It  will  be  observed  that  in  this  Resolutio 
Mr.  Calhoun  did  not  deny  the  power  in  Con 
gress  to  legislate  upon  the  subject  of  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  the  Terri- 
tories. He  deprecates  the  exercise  of  any 
sucb  power  by  Congress  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  be  a  direct  and  dangerous  attack  on 
the  institutions  of  all  the  slave  holding  States  ; 
in  other  words,  on  the  grounds  of  expediency. 
If  Mr.  Calhoun  had  believed,  when  he  drafted 
the  resolution,  that  Congress  had  no  Con- 
stitutional power  to  legislate  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  in  the  Territories,  he  would  assuredly 
have  said  so,  for  he  understood  well  how  to 
express  his  ideas,  and  was  not  at  any  time  the 
man  to  conceal  his  opinions.  Mr.  Clay  offered 
a  substitute  for  Mr.  Calhoun's  resolution, 
which  substitute  was  as  follows  : 

"  Resolved,  That  any  attempt  of  Congress  to 
abolish  slavery  in  any  Territory  of  the  United 
States  in  which  it  exists,  would  create  serious 
alarm  and  just  apprehension  in  the  States 
sustaining  that  domestic  institution,  and  would 
bs  a  violation  of  good  faith  towards  theiuhabi- 
tants  of  any  such  Territory,  who  have  been 
permitted  to  settle  with,  aud  bold  slaves 
therein  ;  because  the  people  of  any  such  Terri^ 
tory  have  not  asked  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
therein,  and  because  when  any  such  Territory 
shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State, 
the  people  thereof  shall  be  entitled  to  decide 
that  question  exclusively  for  themselves.'" 

This  substitute  offered  by  Mr.  Clay,  did  not 
deny  the  power  in  Congress  to  legislate  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  in  the  Territories,  but  by 
implication  admitted  the  power,  and  deprecated 
the  exercise  of  it,  on  the  double  ground  of 
expediency  and  good  faith.  Thirty-five  Sena- 
tors voted  for  Mr.  Clay's  substitute,  and  nine 
against  it.  Mr.  Calhoun  himself  voted  for  it. 
It  is  to  be  remarked  in  passing  that  many  of 
the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  South  differ- 
ed from  Mr.  Calhoun  in  his  course  on  the 
slavery  question  in  1838.  as  they  had  diff'ered. 


from  him  in  1835  in  the  debates  upon  the 
question  of  receiving  abolition  petitions^  and  in 
his  course  on  the  kindred  subject  of  the  trans- 
mission of  incendiary  publications  by  the 
abolitionists,  through  the  mails.  Many  Sou- 
thern members  of  Congress  believed  that  the 
abolition  petitions  should  be  dealt  v^'ith  in 
1835,  as  they  had  been  dealt  ^ith  by  the  first 
Congress,  and  that  the  designs  of  the  abolition- 
ists would  be  advanced  by  giving  the  subject 
of  the  reception  of  their  petitions  and  memori- 
als a  prominent  place  in  the  delibertitiona  of 
the  Senate.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  told  that  he  was 
fanning  the  flame  of  discord,  but  he  did  not 
think  so,  and  persevered  in  his  course. 

There  Ys'ag  comparatively  little  agitation  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  from  the  year  1838, 
until  the  question  of  the  annexation  of  Texas 
was  brought  before  the  country  in  1844,  Upon 
the  death  of  Mr.  Upshur  of  Virginia,  Mr. 
Calhoun  was  called  to  the  head  of  the  Depart 
ment  of  State,  and  that  great  man  was  the 
principal  actor  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States  in  accomplishing  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  His  great  aim  was  to  bring  strength 
to  the  South,  strength  to  the  institution  of 
slavery,  and  to  preserve  the  balance  of  power 
between  the  two  great  sections  of  the  Union. 
These  views  were  frankly  declared  by  Mr. 
Calhoun,  during  the  pendency  of  the  question 
of  annexation,  and  after  the  measure  was  con- 
summated. The  opposition  to  the  annexation 
of  Texas  came  from  the  people  of  the  North. 
They  saw  in  the  measure  a  vast  prospective 
accession  of  strength  to  the  institution  of 
slavery  as  a  political  power  in  the  country, 
and  this  was  at  a  time  when  the  Tariff  qne3-< 
tioa  |was  again  the  subject  of  earnest  debate 
between  the  North  and  the  South.  The  annexa- 
tion resolutions  provided  that  new  States  of 
convenient  size,  not  exceeding  four  in  number, 
besides  the  State  of  Texas  might  be  formed 
oat  of  the  Territory  of  Texas,  and  should  be 
entitled  to  admission  into  the  Union,  tnose  of 
them  lying  below  the  line  of  36°  30°  minutes 
North  latitude,  to  be  admitted  with  or  without 
slavery  as  the  people  might  desire,  and  those 
lying  above  the  line  of  3G  degrees  30  minutes, 
to  be  admitted  without  the  institution  of 
slavery.  It  was  the  common  opinion  of  the 
time  tbat  at  least  three  of  the  fiveStates  which  it 
was  agreed  might  be  formed  out  of  the  territory 
of  Texas,  would  be  slave  States.  Tiie  people 
of  the  North  also  believed  that  the  annexation 
of  Texas  v/ould  involve  the  country  in  a  war 
•with  Mexico,  and  this  too  at  a  time  when  the  I 
Oregon  question  seemed  about  to  involve  us  in 
a  war  with  Eugland.  Notwithstanding  all 
this,  votes  enough  were  found  in  the  North  to 
carry  the  Presidential  election  upon  the  issue 
of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  Northern  votes 
enough  were  found  in  Congress  to  carry  the 
measure  through. 

The  War  witb.  Mexico  followed  as  was  ex-  i 
pected.  The  people  of  the  North  were  op- 
posed to  the  war;  but  they  sustained  the 
government  in  the  prosecution  of  it.  With  the 
close  of  the  war,  came  the  great  agitation 
which  culminated  in  1850,  and  was  settled  by 
the  compromise  measures  of  that  year.  And 
why  another  agitation,  and  a  slavery  agitation 
too?  It  was  because  we  were  acquiring  a  vast 
Territory  from  Mexico,  and  the  question  was 


again  presented  to  the  country,  whether  the 
institution  of  slavery  should  k(^,  at  a  single 
bound,  to  the  shore  of  the  Pacific,  and  derive 
another  vast  accession  of  influence  as  an  ele- 
ment of  political  power,  or  whether  the  Terri- 
tory, acquired  from  Mexico  should  become 
free  Territory. 

But  between  the  time  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas  and  the  great  events  of  the  year  1850, 
the  Southern  mind  had  received  a  new  im- 
pulse on  the  question  of  slavery.  Early  in 
the  year  1847,  Mr.  Calhoun,  farseeing,  vigilant, 
and  believing  himself  to  be  in  the  path  of  duty, 
presented  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
another  series  of  Resolutions  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  In  these  resolutions  he  denied  (that 
which  he  had  before  admitted  by  word  and 
deed)  the  power  in  Congress  to  legislate  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  Territories;  and 
in  his  great  speeeh  of  the  ensuing  year  (1848) 
on  the  establishment  of  a  Territorial  govern- 
ment for  Oregon,  a  speech  made,  not  so  much 
in  view  of  ihe  case  of  Oregon,  as  in  view  of 
the  Territory  then  recently  acquired  from 
Mexico,  Mr.  Calhoun  reviewed  the  whole 
slavery  question,  and  took  the  ground  that 
the  whole  legislation  on  the  subject  of  slavery 
from  the  beginning  had  been  forced  upon  the 
South  by  the  North.  I  wish  to  call  your  at- 
tention for  a  moment  to  some  of  tl.o  statements 
of  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  to  a  few  historical  facts. 
In  his  speech  on  the  Oregon  Bill,  Mr.  Calhoua 
said. 

"  After  an  arduous  struggle  of  more  than  a 
year,  on  the  question  whether  Missouri  should 
come  into  the  Union  with  or  without  restric- 
tions prohibiting  slavery,  a  compromise  line 
was  adopted  between  the  North  and  South ; 
but  it  was  done  under  circumstances  which 
made  it  nowise  obligatory  on  the  latter.  It  is 
true  it  \vi\^  moved  by  one  of  her  distinguished 
citij^ens  (Mr.  Clay,)  but  it  is  equally  so  that  it 
was  carried  by  the  almost  united  vote  of  the 
North,  against  the  almost  united  vote  of  the 
South:  and  was  thus  imposed  on  th',;  latter  by 
superior  numbers,  in  opposition  to  her  streneous 
eftbrts.  The  South  has  never  given  her  sanc- 
tion to  it,  or  assented  to  the  power  it  asserted. 
She  ivas  voted  down  and  has  simply  acquiesced 
in  an  arrangement  which  she  has  not  had  the 
power  to  reverse,  and  which  she  could  not  at- 
tempt to  do  without  disturbing  the  peace 
and  harmony  of  the  Union." 

In  the  speech  with  which  Mr.  Calhoun  pre- 
faced his  Resolutions  on  the  slave  question, 
made  in  the  /Senate  of  the  United  States  on  the 
19th  of  February  18i7._  ho  also  alluded  to  the 
Missouri  Compromise  line  as  follows : 

"  Here  let  me  say  a  word  as  to  the  Compro- 
mise line.  I  have  always  considered  it  as  a 
great  error— highly  injurious  to  the  South,  be- 
cause it  surrendered,  for  mere  temporary  pur- 
poses, those  high  principles  of  the  Constitution 
upon  which  I  think  we  ought  to  stand." 

These  were  the  declarations  of  the  great 
Statesman  of  ^outh  Carolina  in  the  years  ]847 
and  1848.  Now  what  were  the  facts?  The 
fact  in  relation  to  the  Missouri  Compromise 
measure  was  that  it  was  acceptable  to  to  the 
South,  and  received  a  majority  of  the  votes  of 
the  Southern  members  of  Congress.  I  quote 
from  Benton's  Thirty  Years  View.     He  says  : 


8 


"  As  the  Constitutionality  of  this  Compro- 
mise, and  its  binding  force,  have,  in  these  lat- 
ter times  begun  to  be  disputed,  it  is  well  to 
give  the  list  of  the  Senators  voting  for  it,  that 
it  may  be  seen  that  they  were  men  of  judge- 
ment and  weight,  able  to  know  what  the  Con- 
stitution was,  and  not  apt  t©  violate  it.  They 
were  Gov.  Barboar  and  Gov.  Pleasant,  of 
Virginia ;  Mr.  James  Brown  and  Governor 
Henry  Johnson  of  Louisiana  ;  Governor  Ed- 
wards and  Judge  Je?!=e  B.  Thomas,  of  Illinois; 
Mr.  Elliott  and  Mr.  Walker  of  Georgia  ;  Mr. 
Gaillard,  President  j^ro  tern,  of  the  Senate,  and 
Judge  William  Smith,  from  Suuth  Carolina  ; 
Messrs.  Horsey  and  YanDyke,  of  Delaware; 
Colonel  Richard  M.  Johnson  and  Judge  Logan, 
from  Kentucky  ;  Mr.  William  R.  King,  sinco 
Vice  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Judge 
John  W.  Walker,  from  Alabama;  Messrs. 
Leake  and  Thomas  H.  Williams,  from  Missis- 
sippi ;  Governor  Edward  Floyd,  and  the  great 
jurist  and  orator,  William  Pinkney,  from  Mary- 
land ;  Mr.  Macon  and  Governor  5tokes,  from 
North  Carolina,  Messrs.  Walker  Lowrie  and 
Jonathan  Roberts,  from  Pennsylvania;  Mr. 
Noble  and  Judge  Taylor  from  Indiana  ,  Mr. 
Palmer,  from  Vermont ;  Mr.  Parrott,  from  New 
Hampshire.  This  was  the  vote  of  the  Senate 
for  the  Compromise.  In  the  House  there  was 
some  division  among  the  >S'outhcrn  members  ; 
but  the  whole  vote  in  favor  of  it  was  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  four,  to  forty  two  in  the  nega- 
tive—the latter  comprising  some  Northern 
members,  as  the  former  did  a  majority  of  the 
Southern— among  them  one  whose  opinion  had 
a  weight  never  exceeded  by  that  of  any  other 
American  Statesman,  William  Lowndes,  of 
South  Carolina." 

Here.fellow  -citizens,  is  the  attestation  of  His- 
tory, and  no  man  can  say  in  the  face  of  it,  that 
the  /S'outh  was  voted  down  on  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, and  never  gave  her  assent  to  it.  But 
what  is  the  fact  as  to  Mr.  Caihoun's  further 
declaration  that  he  always  considered  the  Com- 
promise as  a  great;  error?  At  the  time  of  the 
passage  of  the  Compromise  measures,  Mr.  Cal- 
houn was  a  member  of  Mr.  Monroe's  Cabinet. 
Mr.  Monroe  signed  his  approval  of  the  Missouri 
act  on  the  6th  day  of  March  18*20.  Mr.  John 
Quincy  Adams  says  in  his  Diary,  that  on  the 
3rd  of  March,  the  President  assumbled  his  Cab- 
inet and  submitted  to  them  the  question  of  the 
constitutionality  of  the  act.  Mr.  Monioe  put 
the  question  in  the  directeat  manner, '"Has  Con- 
gress a  right,  under  the  powers  vested  in  it  by 
the  Constitntioni  to  make  a  regulation  prohibit- 
ing slavery  in  a  territory  ?'-  Mr.  Adams  says 
the  whole  Cabinet  answered  unanimously  and 
affirmatively.  It  is  possible  that  Mr.  Adams 
might  have  made  a  mistake;  but  it  is  not  pos- 
sible that  Mr,  Calhoun  himself  could  have  made 
a  mistake  about  his  own  opinion  at  that  time. 
In  his  speech  on  the  Slavery  Resolutions  which 
ha  introduced  into  the  Senate  in  1838,  Mr. 
Calhoun  said,  speaking  of  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise : 

"  I  was  not  a  member  of  Congress  when  that 
Compromise  vvas  made,  but  it  is  due  to  candor 
to  state  that  my  impressions  were  in  its  favor  ; 
but  it  is  equally  due  to  it  to  say,  that  with  my 
present  experience  and  knowledge  of  the  spirit 
which  (hen  lor  the  first  time  began  to   disclose 


itself,  my  opinion  has  entirely  changed.  I  dow 
believe  that  it  was  a  dangerous  measure,  (he 
does  not  say,  unconstitutional,)  and  that  it  has 
done  much  to  rouse  into  action  the  present 
spirit.  Had  it  then  been  met  with  uncompro- 
mising opposition,  such  as  a  then  distinguished 
and  sagacious  member  from  Virginia  (Mr.  Ran- 
dolph) now  no  more,  opposed  to  it,  abolition 
might  have  been  crushed  forever  in  its  birth. 
I  then  thought  of  Mr.  Randolph,  as  I  doubt  not 
many  think  of  him  now  who  have  not  fully 
looked  into  the  subject — that  he  was  too  un- 
yielding— too  uncompromising— too  impractic- 
able ;  but  1  have  been  taught  my  error,  and 
take  pleasure  in  acknowledging  it." 

These  were  Mr.  Calhoun's  declarations  in 
1838.  That  in  1848— his  feelings  had  under 
gone  such  a  change,  that  the  idea  of  making 
war  against  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  had 
come  so  completely  to  possess  him — that  his 
convictions  of  danger  to  the  institutions  of  the 
/South,  had  become  so  strong  as  to  have  erased 
from  his  memory  the  fact  that  he  acquiesced  in 
the  Missouri  Compromise  at  the  time  it  was 
made,  there  can  be  no  doubt ;  no  more  than 
there  can  be  of  his  perfect  integrity  and  hones- 
ty of  purpose. 

I  wish  also,  to  call  attention  to  a  declaration 
made  by  Mr.  Calhoun  in  relation  to  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787,  by  which  slavery  was  excluded 
from'theiterritory  northwest  of  the  Ohio.  On  the 
20th  of  February  1847,  Mr.  Calhoun  spoke  in 
the  Senate,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Simmons,  of  Rhode 
Island.  The  subject  under  discussion  was  the 
slave  Resolutions  introduced  by  Mr.  Calhoun  a 
few  days  before.  Referring  to  the  norih-weat 
territory,  Mr.  Calhoun  said  : 

''  How  did  it  happen  that  Virginia  and  other 
Southern  States  came  to  be  excluded  from  that 
territory  ?  It  was  by  an  act  of  the  old  Congress 
in  which  the  Senator  very  properly  tviid  us  that 
the  non-slaveholding  /Stateshad  a  majority. 

Mr.  Simmons— Every  one  of  the  slave  hold- 
ing States  voted  for  it. 

Mr.  Calhoun— The  non-slave  holding  States 
had  a  majority,  and  that  Congress  passed  a  law 
excluding  slave  owners  from  the  territory. 
Virginia  was  thus  deprived  of  all  participation 
in  that  magnificent  territory,  without  the 
slightest  authority  under  the  old  articles  of 
Confederation.  I  trust  that  the  -South  never  will 
forget  that  an  act  of  unlimited  generosity,  (the 
cession  of  the  territory  to  the  United  States  by 
Virginia)  almost  without  precedent,  was  con- 
verted, through  the  force  of  a  majority  of  the 
non-slave  holding  States  in  the  old  Congress, 
into  a  monopoly  of  this  territory  from  which 
Virginia  herselL  was  excluded,  and  all  done 
with  out  authority  of  the  old  articles  of  Con- 
federation, but  in  violation  of  them." 

Now,  whether  the  old  Congress  had  authori- 
ty under  the  articles  of  Confederation  to  pass 
the  ordinance  of  1787  or  not,  need  not  now  be 
discussed.  One  thing  however,  is  as  certain  as 
any  other  fact  recorded  in  history,  and  that  is 
that  the  ordinance  was  not  passed  by  a  majority 
of  non-slaveholding  States  in  the  old  Congress. 
And  another  thing  is  equally  certain,  and  that 
is  that  Virginia  has  no  reason  to  complain  of 
that  portion  of  the  ordinanse  which  excluded 
slavery  from  the  territory  ceded  by  her,,  for  she 


took  the  lead  in  what  was  done,  and  voted  for 
the  ordioanee  whew  it  finally  passed.  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson himself  brought  the  measure  into  the 
old  Congress  on  the  19th  of  April  1784.  with 
the  anti-slavery  clause  in  it.  Mr.  Speight,  of 
North  Carolina  moved  to  strike  oat  the  anti- 
slavery  clause,  and  it  was  struck  out  because 
the  clause  did  not  then  contain  the  provision  in 
favor  of  the  recovery  of  fugitive  slave?,  which 
was  afterwards  engrafted  on  it.  The  ordinance, 
as  it  was  finally  passed,  was  reported  by  a  com- 
mittee of  five  members.  They  were  Mr.  Car- 
rington,  of  Virginia,  who  was  chairman  of  the 
committee,  Mr.  Dane,  of  Massachusetts  ;  Mr. 
R.  H.  Lee,  ef  Virginia;  Mr.  Kean,  of  South 
Carolina,  and  Mr.  Smith  bf  New  York,  It  will 
be  seen  that  three  of  the  five  were  fVom  slave 
holding  States.  The  ordinance  receivod  its 
first  reading  on  the  Uth  day  of  July  1787— its 
second  reading  on  the  12tb,  and  on  tke  13lh  it 
was  passed  by  the  votes  of  every  State  present. 
The  States  present  were  Massachusetts,  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Geargia.  The 
ordinance  also  received  the  vote  of  every  mem- 
ber present,  with  one  single  exception,  and  that 
wag  Mr.  Yates,  of  New  York.  Now  fellow- 
citizens,  what  ground  do  these  facts  afford  for 
the  declaration  of  Mr.  Calhoun  that  the  north- 
western territory  was  converted  into  a  monop- 
oly from  which  Virginia  was  herself  excluded, 
by  a  majority  of  the  non-slaveholding  States 
in  the  old  Congress  ?  Was  ever  declaration 
more  unfounded?  Yet  by  such  declarations  as 
these  coming  from  high  quarters,  have  the 
minds  of  the  Southern  people  been  inflamed, 
and  thousands  have  been  taught  that  from  the 
first  organization  of  the  government,  and  before, 
the  people  of  the  North  have  been  making  war 
on  our  institutions. 

As  I  said  before,  Mr.  Calhoun  was  the  chief 
actor  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  in  the 
annexation  of  Texas.  He  claimed  the  credit 
of  that  great  measure,  and  esteemed  the  part 
which  he  acted  in  it,as  one  of  his  strongest  claims 
to  the  respect  of  the  country.  Did  not  the 
annexatiou  Resolutions  in  effect  recognize  and 
re-enact  the  Missouri  compromise?  Look  at 
the  facts.  The  territory  of  Texas  extended  to 
the  forty-second  degree  of  north  latitude — five 
degrees  and  a  half  north  of  the  line  of  the  Mis- 
souri compromise.  All  this  was  slave  territory 
by  the  laws  of  the  Republic  of  Texas.  By  the 
annexation  Resolutions,  and  the  application  of 
the  principle  of  the  Missouri  compromise  to  the 
territory  of  Texas,  all  that  part  cf  her  territory 
lying  north  of  the  line  of  thirty  six  degrees 
thirty  minutes  became  free  territory.  Was  not 
this  a  pretty  strong  recognition  of  the  Mo.  com- 
promise ?  It  certainly  was  on  the  part  of  Texas 
at  least,  for  it  made  free  territory  out  of  what 
was  before  slave  territory.  And  when  the  an- 
nexation Resolutions  passed  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  Mr-  Buchanan,  then  a  Sena- 
tor declared  his  satisfaction  with  them  because 
they  respected  the  principle  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.     Mr.  Buchanan  said  : 

"Was  it  desirable  to  have  the  Missouri  ques- 
tion again  brought  home  to  the  people  to  goad 
them  to  fury  ?  That  question  between  the  two 
great  interests  in  our  country  had  been  well 
discussed  and   well  decided:    and  from  that 


moment  he  (Mr.  Buchanan)  had  set  down  his 
foot  on  the  solid  ground  thus  establishefl,  and 
there  he  would  let  the  question  stand  forever. 
Who  could  complain  of  the  terms  of  that  Com- 
promise ?" 

'  We  all  remember  that  General  Houston, 
then  our  Senator,  voted  for  the  Oregon  bill, 
and  was  denounced  for  it  by  the  people  of 
Texas.  I  perceive  that  the  distinguished  gen- 
tlemen to  whom  I  allude,  is  present,  but  I 
speak  with  the  freedom  of  history.  When 
Gen.  Houston  returned  home  from  the  Senate, 
after  his  rote  on  the  Oregon  bill,  he  justified 
the  vote  on  the  ground  that  Texas  had  recog- 
nized the  Missouri  Compromise  by  the  annexa- 
tion Resolutions.  We  accepted  the  explana- 
tion of  the  vote  given  by  General  Houston,  and 
sent  him  again  to  represent  us  in  the  Senate. 
And  not  only  this,  but  a  Democratic  Legisla- 
ture afterwards  nominated  him  for  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  United  States.  Have  not  things 
changed  ?  and  why  ?  The  spirit  of  party  has 
been  at  the  bottom  of  it.  It  was  not  General 
Houston's  Oregon  vote  that  lost  him  bis  seat 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  ;  nor  was  it 
even  his  vote  on  the  Kansas -Nebraska  bill.  It 
was  because  be  quit  for  a  while  the  ranks  of 
the  Democratic  Party — because  he  joined  the 
Know-nothings.  If  he  had  continued  to  serve 
under  the  old  banner,  or  to  carry  it,  as  he  had 
done  so  long,  his  Kansas-Nebraska  vote  would 
have  been  forgiven,  and  he  might  have  died  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  if  had  chosen 
to  do  so. 

Fellow-citizens,  look  back  at  the  whole  facts 
from  the  begining.  Let  us  divest  our  minds  of 
passion  and  predjudice,  and  reason  on  these 
subjects  as  we  would^  about  other  things. 
When  the  Constitution  was  adopted  there  was 
little  diversity  of  opinion  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  It  was  generally  conceded  to  be  an 
evil.  It  was  regarded  as  a  temporary  institu- 
tion that  was  to  pass  away.  In  framing  the 
Consiitution  it  was  agreed  that  three-fifths  of 
the  slaves  in  the  slave  holding  States  should 
be  represented  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
The  Northern  people  consented  to  this  be- 
cause they  believed  that  slaves  would  be  taxed 
for  the  support  of  the  general  government.  It 
does  not  affect  the  argument,  that  the  South 
would  not  have  formed  the  Union  on  other 
terms,  than  that  their  slaves  should  be  repre- 
sented in  Congress.  The  people  of  the  North 
nave  been  disappointed  in  their  expectation  that 
slaves  would  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  the 
general  government.  All  the  revenues  are  de- 
rived from  duties  ou  imports,  and  from  the 
public  lands.  The  people  of  the  North  have 
been  disappointed  also  in  the  expectation  that 
slavery  would  prove  to  be  a  temporaey  institu- 
tion in  the  country.  The  cultivation  of  cotton 
has  given  the  institution  strength  and  per- 
manency. It  is  also  to  be  remarked  that  when 
the  Constitution  was  adopted,  the  status  of  all 
the  territory  belonging  to  the  United  States 
was  fixed,  so  far  as  slavery  was  concerned. 
The  territory  on  the  North-west  was  to  be 
free,  the  territory  on  the  South-west  was  to  be 
slave  territory.  It  was  not  contemplated  that 
other  territory  would   be  acquired.    N«  pro- 


10 


■vision  was  made  in  the  Constituiion  for  the 
extension  of  the  limits  of  the  country  beyond 
the  original  thirteen  States,  and  their  territo- 
ries. But  what  have  we  seen  ?  We  have  seen 
Louisiana  brought  in,  within  an  immense  ter- 
ritory. We  haveseeo  Florida  brought  in.  We 
have  seen  Texas  brought  in.  We  have  seen 
our  territory  extended,  at  the  expenre  of  Mexi- 
co, to  the  Pacific.  It  is  not  in  ■  the  nature  of 
things,  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  man,  that  such 
vast  changes  as  these,  would  not  be  attended 
by  correspondingly  great  changes  in  public 
opinion  upon  the  question  of  slavery,  because 
as  I  have  all  along  stated,  slavery  is  an  active 
principle  in  politics,  in  this  country,  as  well  as 
a  form  of  labor ;  it  has  political  power  ;  h  can 
defend  and  attack;  and  is  in  its  very  nature  the 
closest  bond  of  Union  between  all  those  inter- 
ested in  it  as  an  institution. 

Now,  fellow-citizens,  these  things  being  so, 
and  it  being  true  as  before  stated,  that  the 
North  and  the  South  have  been  in  antagonism 
upon  great  questions  of  political  economy,  is  it 
Eot  a  natural  and  reasonable  result,  that  the 
people  of  the  North  should  be  opposed  to  the 
extaasion  of  slavery,  and  the  admission  of 
slave  States  into  the  Union  ?  And  if  we  had 
been  in  the  place  of  the  people  of  the  North, 
during  the  last  fifty  years,  and  they  in  ours, 
do  you  believe  that  we  would  have  been  wil- 
ling to  see  slavery  extended,  and  slave  States 
brought  into  the  Union  ?  Let  us  be  just,  let 
us  look  at  things  as  they  are.  Let  u?  recog- 
nize the  truth  that  the  honest  and  intelligent 
people  of  the  North  (I  am  not  speaking  of  the 
blind  fanatics)  look  at  the  question  of  slavery, 
and  at  all  the  questions  growing  out  of  it, 
from  one  stand-point,  and  that  we  look  at 
these  questions  from  another.  Let  us  recog- 
nize the  truth  that  there  is  something  peculiar 
in  the  institution  of  slavery  as  a  form  of  labor, 
and  as  an  element  of  political  power  in  this 
country.  Let  us  see  how  opposition  to  the  ex- 
tension of  slaveiy,  because  of  its  political  in- 
fluence, has  had  the  effect  of  concentrating 
the  violence  of  party  spirit  upon  the  slavery 
question,  and  how  this  spirit  of  party,  in  a 
mad  contest  for  political  supremacy,  has  come 
to  unite  itself  with  a  furious  and  blind  fanati- 
cism, on  the  part  of  some,  and  thus  to  produce 
the  distractions  which  threaten  to  everthrow 
the  government  under  which  we  have  been  so 
prosperous,  and  grown  so  great. 

Time  does  not  allow  me  to  notice  at  any 
length  the  great  agitation  of  1850  :  the  corn- 
promise  growing  out  of  it,  and  the  Kansas-Ne- 
braska act,  and  its  consequences. 

The  compromise  measures  of  1850,  restored 
quiet  to  the  country,  and  the  Democratic  par-  j 
ty,  the  party  of  the  people,  and  of  the  Consti-  * 
tution,  was  never  stronger  than  in  1852.     Af-  ' 
ter  that,  came  the  Kansas-Nebraska  act.     It 
was  a   move  on    the   part  of  the  South,   and 
those  acting  with  her,  to  undo  all  that  had  been 
done  in  the  way  of  compromise  on  the  slavery 
question,   and  to  declare  what  were  believed 
to  be  the  true  principle  of  the  Constitution. — 
I  shall   not  discuss  the  act,     I  believe  it  is 
now  generally  agreed  that  it  was  the  fruitful 
parent  of  the  present  agitations.     It's  passage, 


and  the  events  growing  out  of  it's  passage,  lent 
additional  fury  to  Northern   fanaticism,    and 
aroused    the    anti-slavery    sentiment   of  the 
North  for  a   great  straggle   with    the   pow- 
erful    political       party     at     whose     hands 
they  had  sufiered  so  many  defeats.     Not  only 
so,  but  the  events  growing  out  of  the  passage 
of  that  act,  have  divided  and   broken  up  the 
Democratic   party,  which   has    always  fought 
the  battles  of  the  Constitution.     Ana  why  are 
we  divided  ?     What  are  we  quarrelling  with 
each  other   about,     those   of     us   who   once 
with  serried   ranks,  followed  the  Democratic 
flag  ?     We  are  quarrelling  about  questions  of 
law,    and    abstractions,   at  that;  and   men's 
minds   have  become   so    much   excited   upon 
these  subjects,  that  it  is  the  fashion  of  the  day 
for  the  majority  to  denounce  all  who  do  not 
think  as  they  think.     Has  it  come  to  this,  that 
a  man  in  this  country   cannot  think  for  him- 
self without   being  denounced  by  those  whose 
trade  it  is  to  make  platforms,  and  to  dictate 
to   others  what  the   shall  believe  ?     I  confess 
that  my  cheeks  have  burned   with  shaifie  be- 
cause of  the  intolerance  and  the  spirit  of  pro- 
scription for  opinions  sake    which    is    abroad 
in  the  land.     Why,  fellow-citizens,    the  whole 
stupendous  frame-work  of  this  government  re- 
poses upon   the  basis  of  public   opinion  ;  and 
it   is  a  solid  basis    too ;    for   however   much 
opinions  may  change  in  respect  to  measures 
or  questions  of  law,  so  long   as  every  man  is 
free  to  form  and  express  his  opinions,   and  so 
long  as  we   love  liberty  and  respect  law,    so 
long  will  the   government   stand    on   a  solid 
foundation.      What   have    we   beheld?      We 
have  seen  the  Democratic  party   disrupted  at 
Charleston  and  at  Baltimore,   upon    an   issue 
which  everybody  feels  was  not  a  practical   is- 
sue.    We  have  heard  Mr.  Douglas  denounced 
as  a  traitor,  as  having  taken   a    slitrrt  cut  to 
Black  Republicanism,  as  being  not  a  bit  bet- 
ter than  Lincoln  :  and  yet  as  the  conflict  deep- 
ened, we  have  heard    Democratic  orators  from 
all  the  stumps  in  the  the  country  declare  that 
the  election  of  Mr.  Douglas   to  the  Presidency 
would  be  no  ground  for    a  dissolution  of  the 
Union.     Nay,  more,    we   have  heard  repeated 
laudations  of  the  old  Whig  party,    and   of  its 
famous  leaders.     Not  long  before  the  election, 
I  heard  Mr.  Wharton,  of  Brazoria,  standing  in 
this  place  pay  an  eloquent  tribute  to  the  gal- 
lant old  whig  party.     I  am  not  here  to   criti- 
cise Mr.  Wharton.     He  is  my  tnend,  and  I  am 
proud  that  my  native    county   can    boast   of 
such  a  son.     But  if  I    express  my  opinions  at 
all,  I  think  it  proper  to  point  to  inconsistencies 
in  public  men  and  parties  for  the  sake  of  cor- 
recting erroneous    impressions   that   may    be 
made     on     the    minds     of     the      people. — 
Mr.  Wharton  spoke  of  Henry  Clay   and  Daniel 
Webster.     I  remember  some  of  his  words,  he 
called  them  "twins  of  genius,  whose  memories 
I   honor  and   revere."     Now,  fellow-citizens, 
what  opinions  did  Mr.  Clay  and   Mr.   Webster 
entertain  upon  the  main  question   which    di- 
vides the  North  and  the  South,  the  question 
or  the  extension  of  slavery  ?     Give   me  leave 
to  show  you  what  those  great  men  thought 
on  this  question.     Speaking  on  the  compro- 


11 


mise  measures  of  1850,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Da- 
yis,  of  Mississippi,  Mr.  Clay  said :  "  I  am 
extremely  sorry  to  hear  the  Senator  from 
Mississippi  say  that  he  requires,  first,  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Missouri  compromise  line  to 
the  Pacific,  and  also  that  he  is  not  satisfied 
■with  that,  but  requirss  if  I  understood  him 
correctly,  a  positive  provision  for  the  admis- 
sion of  slavery  south  of  that  line.  And  now 
Sir,  coming  from  a  slave  State,  as  T  do,  I 
owe  it  to  mysell,  I  owe  it  to  truth,  I  owe  it 
io*the  subject,  to  say  that  no  earthly  power 
could  induce  me  to  vote  for  a  sppcific  meas- 
sure  for  the  introduction  of  slavery  where  it 
had  not  before  existed  either  north  or  soutn 
of  that  line.  Coming  as  I  do  from  a  slave 
State,  it  is  my  solemn,  deliberate,  and  well 
matured  determination  that  no  power,  no 
earthly  power,  shall  compel  me  to  vote  for 
the  positive  introduction  of  slavery  either 
South  or  North  of  that  hue.  These  are  my 
views,  sir,  and  I  choose  to  express  them  ;  and 
I  care  not  how  extensively  or  universally  they 
are  known." 

Thus  a  noble  and  high  spirited  man  expres- 
sed himself  in  a  time  of  great  excitement  and 
confusion. 

In  his  speech  on  the  exclusion  of  slavery 
from  the  territories,  delivered  in  the  Senate  on 
the  12th  of  August,  1848,  Mr.  Webster  said: 

"  I  have  said  that  I  shall  consent  to  no  ex- 
tension of  the  area  of  slavery  upon  this  Conti- 
nent, nor  to  any  increase  of  slave  representa- 
tion in  the  other  House  of  Congress.  I  have 
stated  my  reasons  for  my  conduct  and  my  vote. 
We  of  the  North  have  already  gone,  in  this  re- 
spect, far  beyond  all  that  any  Southern  man 
could  have  expected,  or  did  expect,  at  the  time 
of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  I  repeat 
the  statement  of  the  fact'of  the  creation  of  five 
new  slave-holding  States  out  of  newly  acquir- 
ed territory.  We  have  done  that  which  if 
those  who  framed  the  Constitutien  had  foreseen, 
they  never  would  have  agreed  to  slave  repre- 
sentation. We  have  yielded  thus  far;  and  we 
have  now  in  the  the  House  of  Representatives 
twenty  persons  voting  upon  this  very  question, 
and  upon  all  other  questions,  who  are  there 
only  in  virtue  of  the  representation  of  slaves. — 
Looking,  then,  to  tne  operation  of  these  new 
acquisitions,  which  have  in  this  great  degree 
had  the  effect  ot  strengthening  that  interest  in 
the  South  by  the  addition  of  these  five  States, 
I  feel  that  there  is  nothing  unjust,  nothing  of 
"which  any  honest  man  can  complain,  if  he  is 
intelligent ;  and  I  feel  that  there  is  nothing 
with  which  the  civilized  world,  i*"  they  take  no- 
tice of  so  humble  a  person  as  myself,  will  re- 
proach me,  when  I  say,  as  I  said  tne  other  day, 
that  I  have  made  up  my  mind,  for  one,  that 
under  no  circumstances  will  I  consent  to  the 
further  extension  of  the  area  of  slavery  in  the 
United  States,  or  to  the  further  increase  of 
slave  representation  in  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives." 

Fellow-citizens,  these  were  great  and  wise 
men,  men  who  had  a  regard  for  their  reputa- 
tions, men  who  knew  that  their  names  and 
their  ©pinions  would  live  in  tha  pages  of  his- 


tory. Who  dares  to  say  that  they  were  not 
patriots  ?  The  time  was  indeed,  when  the  rage 
of  party  denied  patriotism  to  Mr.  Clay,  and  to 
Mr.  Webster  also.  The  time  was  when  the 
voice  of  party  denied  wisdom  and  ability  even 
to  General  Washington.  The  time  was  when 
the  people  of  this  country  were  told  that  Gen. 
Jackson  was  an  ambitious  military  chief,  and 
that  if  he  was  elected  to  the  Presidency,  he 
would  trample  on  the  Constitution  and  lib- 
erties of  the  country.  But  as  to  these  great 
men  the  voice  of  party  has  been  long  since 
hushed,  and  the  man  cannot  now  be  found  who 
would  insult  an  audience  by  denying  patriotism 
to  either  of  them.  But  who  dares  now  to  ex- 
press the  opinions  which  were  entertained  by 
Mr.  Clay  and  by  Mr.  Webster,  on  the  question 
ef  the  extension  of  slavery  ?  To  do  so  would 
subject  a  man  to  be  denounced  as  an  aboli- 
tionist and  a  traitor;  and  yet  we  live  under 
the  same  Constitution  now  which  we  lived 
under  then. 

But  I  find  that  I  am  consuming  too  much 
of  your  time,  and  I  pass  on  to  tne  question 
more  immediately  before  us.  We  all  recog- 
nise the  fact  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  crisis.  What  course  ought  the  people 
of  Texas  to  pursue?  I  do  not  desire  to  see 
Texas  fold  her  arms  and  quietly  wait  the  cur- 
rent of  events?  I  would  have  her  counsel 
calmly  and  deliberately,  with  the  other  slave- 
holding  States.  I  would  not  have  her  rush 
hastily  into  revolution.  I  would  take  the 
sense  of  the  people,  and  abide  by  their  decis- 
ion. I  understand  that  the  Governor  has  al- 
ready addressed  the  Governors  of  the  other 
slave-holding  States,  and  informed  them  of 
his  willingness  to  order  an  election  for  seven 
delegates,  as  provided  by  the  act  of  the  16th 
of  February,  1858,  to  meet  the  delegates  of 
the  other  Southern  States  in  Convention,  if 
the  Governors  of  those  States  think  such  a 
Convention  desirable.  I  am  gratified  to  hear 
that  the  Governor  has  taken  this  step,  and  I 
hope  it  may  lead  to  consultation  between 
the  Slave-holding  States.  Such  a  Conven- 
tion of  the  Southern  States  would  give  assu- 
rance of  thoughtful  and  deliberate  action. — 
But  the  cry  of  the  majority  is,  at  all  events 
the  cry  of  the  politicians  is,  that  we  cannot 
wait — that  we  must  sever  our  relations  with 
the  Federal  Government  at  once,  aod  deliber- 
ate afterwards.  I  hold  in  my  hand  a.  pronun- 
ciamefito  signed  by  a  very  intelligent  and  re- 
spectable gentleman,  Mr.  Stewart  of  Gonzales; 
which  gives  notice  that  the  Legislature  will 
assemble  in  this  place  on  the  third  Monday  in 
December.  This  is  in  accordance  witn  a  res- 
olution passed  by  the  mass  meeting  of  Gonza- 
les county,  declaring  that  the  Legislature  can 
assemble  as  such,  without  the  call  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, Now  fellow-citizens,  I  am  not  much  of 
a  lawyer,  but  I  must  say  that  this  is  the  first 
time  that  I  have  ever  heard  that  under  a  Con- 
stitution like  ours,  the  Legislature  after  ad- 
journing without  day,  could  assemble  and  leg- 
islate without  the  lead  of  the  Executive  au- 
thority. If  I  have  read  our  Constitution  aright 
it  provides  that  the  powers  of  Government, 
in  this  State  shall  be  divided  into  three   dis- 


12 


tioct  departments,  and  each  of  theni  committed 
to  a  separate  bodj  of  magistracy:  thoBe  which 
are  Legislative,  to  one ;  those  which  are 
Executive  to  another,  and  those  which  are 
Judicial  to  another,  and  that  no  person  or  eol- 
lection  of  persons,  being  of  one  of  those  de- 
partments shall  exercise  any  power  properly  at- 
tached to  either  of  th«  others.  And  I  find  in 
the  Constitution  a  distinct  provision  to  the 
effect  that  the  Governor  may  on  extraordinary 
occasions  convene  the  Legislature.  How  then 
can  the  Legislature  convene  without  the  call 
of  the  Governor,  when  the  Constitution  in- 
vests him  with  the  power  to  call  them  togeth- 
er on  extraordinary  occasions?  Such  doctrines 
are  revolutionary— they  partake  of  the  spirit 
of  the  mob.  I  use  strong  language,  but  the 
times  are  such  that  those  who  speak  should 
speak  plainly,  and  so  help  me  God,  while 
I  have  my  reason,  I  will  never  in  times  of 
high  excitement  give  my  countenance  to  mea- 
sures which  teed  directly  to  the  subversion 
of  the  laws.  And  in  Washington  county,  one 
of  the  oldest  and  most  respectable  counties 
in  the  State,  I  see  a  resolution  passed  by  a 
public  meeting  calling  upon  the  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  other  officers  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, to  order  an  election  for  delegates  to 
a  Convention,  in  the  event  of  the  Goverpor's 
refusal  to  call  the  Legislature  together.  I  believe 
ihat  was  the  substance  of  theWashington  coun- 
y  resolution.  Why  all  this  haste?  Why  this 
distrust  of  the  Governor?  Did  not  the  people  put 
him  in  office?  Does  any  one,or  do  the  people 
doubt  his  patriotism?  He  says  that  in  his  opinion 
the  present  agitation  throughout  th«  country, 
calls  for  the  calm  deliberation  of  Statesmen. 
Those  who  wish  to  commit  the  State  to  a  rev- 
olutionary  movement,  admit  that  every  thing 
should  be  done  with  the  greatest  possible  mod- 
eration. They  say,  "the  legislature  ought  to  be 
assembled  immediately,  but  they  must  act  with 
moderation;  there  ought  to  be  a  convention 
by  the  last  of  January,  but  (here  ought  be  the  ! 
greatest  moderation  ou  all  hands;  and  the  state  | 
ought  to  arm  too,  but  nothing  ought  to  be  dene  i 
that  is  not  characterized  by  the  greatest  pos-  j 
sible  degree  of  moderation.  By  all  means  let  j 
us  have  moderation."  Some  of  these  gentle- I 
men  are  sincere  too,  in  their  talk  about  moder-  i 
ation,  but  who  does  not  know  that  when  a  rev-  \ 
olutiouary  movement  is  once  set  on  foot,  and  j 
men's  minds  are  inflamed  by  passion,  modera-  | 
tion  is  always  thrown  to  the  winds  ?  I  have  I 
read  in  the  history  of  a  neighboring  nation,  that 
when  Iturbide  was  meditating  the  assumption 
of  supreme  power,  he  conjured  the  army  which 
was  devoted  to  his  purposes,  to  act  with  calm- 
ness and  moderation.  He  refused  the  rank  of 
Lieutenant  General  which  they  tendered  him, 
and  the  next  day  went  so  far  as  to  tear  from  his 
uniform  the  lace  decorations  which  denoted 
his  rank  in  the  army,  and  declared  that  he  wonld 
be  content  to  serve  bis  country  in  the  humblest 
capacity.  Yet  in  a  few  mouths  his  brow  was 
circled  by  an  Imperial  Diadem. 

But  I  recur  to  the  question,  what  are  we  to 
do  ?  And  first  let  me  ask,  for  what  do  nations 
revolutionize?  Only  for  great  wrongs.  And 
what  are  our  grievances  ?  We  are  told  that 
ihe  Black  Republican  party  has  proclaimed  a 


War  of  extermination  upon  our  institutlong — 
that  their  object  will  be  to  abolish  slavery  la 
the  State*— that  they  will  burn  our  towng  and 
villages,  and  incite  our  slaves  to  insurrection. 
The  bare  recital  of  these  things  inflames  the 
minds  of  the  Southern  people,  and  makes 
them  almost  unwilling  to  look  at  the  facts. 
Now  I  admit  that  there  is  much  to  deplore. 
No  one  looks  with  greater  abhorance  than  I  do, 
upon  the  designs  of  the  abolitionists,  and  no 
one  can  be  more  disgusted  than  I  am  by  the 
ceaseless  belchings  of  their  fury  But  the 
abolitionists  have  been  proclaiming  their 
designs  and  vomiting  forth  their  rage  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years.  Are  the  Black  Re- 
publicans all  abolitionists?  What  is  the 
Black  Republican  party  ?  When  did  it  come 
into  existence  and  of  what  i?  it  composed  9  It 
had  no  existence  in  1852.  Then  ths  struggle 
was  between  the  Democratic  party  and  the 
Whig  party.  The  Black  Republican  party 
has  sprung  into  existence  since.  It  is  com- 
composed  of  all  the  elements  of  opposition  to 
the  Democracy  to  be  found  in  the  Northern 
States.  Old  Whigs,  Native  Americans,  Know 
Nothings,  all  of  every  party,  who  have  been  so 
often  overthrown  by  the  Democracy  have 
banded  together  for  a  struggle  with  their  old 
adversary  ;  and  the  abolitionists  have  got  in 
the  van.  and  have  made  the  most  of  the  noise 
about  which  we  are  ?o  enraged.  The  aboli- 
tionists six  years  ago  were  contemptible  as  a 
political  party.  They  exerted  no  influence  in 
the  Presidential  election.  For  the  first  time 
HDce  their  organization  as  a  party,  they  felt  so 
impotent  that  they  were  willing  to  bow  their 
pride,  to  abate  their  high  pretensions  and  to 
take  service  under  another  flag.  Accordingly 
they  joined  the  new  party— the  Black  Republi- 
cans ;  and  they  raised  such  a  cry  agaiu*?t  the 
institution  of  slavery,  that  the  voice  of  con- 
servatism in  the  party  was  for  a  time  comple- 
tely hushed.  But  fellow-  citizens,  how  much  of 
this  has  been  due  to  the  excitement  of  a 
Presidential  canvass  ?  For  one,  I  declare 
that  I  do  not  gee  the  evidence  that  the  Black 
Republicans,  as  a  party,  have  proclaimed  a 
war  upon  our  institutions.  What  is  the  evi- 
dence of  party  faith  and  policy  ?  Are  we  not 
to  look  to  their  platform  ?  I  remember  that 
when  some  of  us,  in  1359,  thought  that  the 
Plouston  Convention  had  given  us  candidates 
who  were  dispo.=edjto  commit  the  State  to  the 
policy  of  re-opening  the  African  Slave  trade, 
it  was  said  that  the  policy  of  the  party  was  to 
be  found  in  the  platform;  and  that  it  did  not 
matter  what  opinions  were  entertained  by 
individuals.  If  this  is  the  rule  where  the 
DemocrBtic  party  is  concerned,  it  is^but  fair  to 
apply  it  also  to  our  enemies.  Now  what  does 
the  Black  Republican  platform  announce  to  be 
the  policy  of  that  party  ?  The  worst  plank  in 
it  is  the  one  which  says  that  slavery  shall  not 
be  extended.  It  distinctly  acknowledges  that 
it  is  the  right  of  each  State  to  regulate  its 
domestic  institutions  for  itself.  Yes,  but  it  is 
said  that  Mr.  Lincoln  has  said  so  and  so,  and 
Mr.  Seward  has  said  this  thing  and  that  thing. 
Fellowxcitizens,  when  parties  are  struggling 
for  power,  and  wheu  individuals  are  using 
their  utmost  efforts  to  win  votes,  it  is  not  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  take  a  sentence  written  on 
this  occasion  and  a  word  spoken  on  that,  and 


13 


deduce  from  it  a  man's  opinions  or  tho  line  of 
policy  which  he  will  pureue.  But  euppose  we 
■were  to  test  Mr.  Lincoln  even  in  this  way,  ho 
is  not  the  great  Apostle  of  ruin  that  gome 
would  make  him  out.  Let's  hear  him  speak 
for  himself.  And  let  the  worst  come  first.  Mr: 
Lincoln  is  said  to  be  the  true  father  of  the 
famous  idea  of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict.*' 
The  honors  of  paternity  were  disputed  awhile 
between  him  and  Mr.  ^Seward.  But  it  is  sup- 
posed to  be  settled  that  the  iionor  properly 
belongs  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  Here  is  the  way, 
in  which  he  announced  the  doctrine. 

"A  house  dirided  against  itself  cannot 
stand."  I  believe  this  Government  cannot 
endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I 
do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved— I  do 
not  expect  the  house  to  fall— but  I  do  expect  it 
will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all 
one  thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  oppo- 
nents of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread 
of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  miod  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction  ;  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in 
all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new — North  as 
well  as  South" 

Replying  to  iV/r.  Douglas  on  the  10th  of  July 
1858,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  : 

■I  am  not,  in  the  first  place,  unaware  that 
this  Government  has  endured  eighty-two 
years,  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  believe  it  has 
«nduied.  because  during  all  that  time,  until 
the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  the 
public  mind  did  rest  in  the  belief  that  slavery 
was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  That 
was  what  gave  us  the  rest  that  we  had  through 
that  period  of  eighty-two  years,  at  leaet,  so  I 
believe.  I  have  always  hated  slavery,  I  think 
a«  much  as  any  Abolitionist — I  have  been  an 
Old  Line  Whig— I  have  always  hated  it.  but  I 
have  always  been  quiet  about  it  until  this  new 
era  of  the '  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill 
began.  I  always  believed  that  everybody  was 
against  it,  and  that  it  was  in  course  of  ulti- 
mate extinction.  The  great  mass  of  the  na- 
tion have  rested  in  this  belief  that  slavery 
was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction. 

I  have  said  a  hundred  time?;,  and  I  have  now 
DO  inclination  to  take  it  back,  that  I  believe 
tie  e  is  no  right,  and  ought  to  be  no  inclination 
in  the  people  of  the  Free  States  to  enter  into 
the  slave  States,  and  interfere  with  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery  at  all ;  and  when  it  is  said  that 
I  am  in  favor  of  interfering  with  slavery  where 
it  exists,  I  know  it  is  unwarranted  by  anything 
I  have  ever  intended,  as  I  believe,  by  anything 
I  have  ever  said.  If,  by  any  means,  I  have 
ever  used  language  which  could  fairly  be  so 
construed  (as,  however,  I  believe  I  never 
have,)  I  now  correct  it. 

So  much,  then,  for  tho  inference  that  Judge 
Douglas  draws,  that  I  am  in  favor  of  setting 
the  sections  at  war  with  one  another.  I  know 
that  I  never  meant  any  such  thing,  and  I  be 
lieve  that  eg  fair  mind  can  infer  any  such 
thing  from  anything  I  have  ever  said." 

I  will  now  read  to  you  what  Mr.  Lincoln 
said,  about  the  rights  of  the  States.  He  was 
reply tng  to  Mr.  Douglas  on  the  15th  Sept. 
1858.    This  is  what  he  said  : 

"There  is  very  much  in  the  principle  that 
Judge  Douglae  h»B  here  enunciated  thspt   I 


most  cordially  approve,  and  over  which  I 
shall  have  no  controversey  with  him.  In  so 
far  as  he  has  insisted  that  ftli  the  States  have 
the  right  to  do  exactly  as  they  please  about 
all  their  domestic  relation?,  including  that  of 
slavery,  I  agree  with  him  entirely.  I  hold 
myself  under  constitutional  obligations  to 
allow  the  people  in  all  the  States,  without 
interference,  direct  or  indirect,  to  do  ex- 
actly aa  they  please,  and  I  deny  that  I  have 
any  inclination  to  interfere  with  them,  even  if 
there  were  no  such  constitutional  obligations.' 
Here  is  what  ha  has  said  about  the  Fugitive 
felave  law  : 

'In  regard  to  tho  Fugitive  slave  law,  I  have 
never  hesitated  to  say,  and  I  do  not  now  hesl- 
to  say,  that  I  think,  under  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  th«  people  of  the  United 
States  ato  entitled  to  a  Congressional  Fugitive 
slave  law.  Having  said  that,  I  have  had 
nothing  to  say  in  regard  to  the  existing  Fugitive 
slave  law,  farther  than  that  I  think  it  should 
have  been  framed  so  as  to  be  tree  from  some 
of  the  objections  that  pertain  to  it,  without 
lessening  its  eflSciency.  And  inasmuch  as  we 
are  not  now  in  an  agitation  in  regard  to  an 
alteration  or  modification  of  that  law,  I  would 
not  be  the  man  to  introduce  it  as  a  new  subject 
of  agitation  upon  the  general  question  of 
slavery.' 

Here  again  is  what  he  has  said  about  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia : 

'I  should  be  exceedingly  glad  to  see  slavery 
abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  I  be- 
lieve that  Congress  possesses  the  constitutional 
power  to  laboliih  it.  Yet,  as  a  member  of 
CongresSjll  should  not,  with  my  present  viewsj 
be  in  fiivor  of  endeavoring  to  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  unless  it  would  be 
upon  these  conditions.  First,  That  the  abeli- 
tion  should  be  gradual.  Second,  That  it 
should  be  on  a  vote  of  the  majority  of  qualified 
voters  in  the  District ;  and  Third,  That  com- 
pensation should  be  made  to  unwilling  owners.' 
On  the  18th  of  September  1S58,  he  said: 
'I  am  not,  nor  ever  have  been,  in  favor  of 
bringing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and 
political  equality  of  the  white  and  black 
races — I  am  not  nor  ever  have  been  in  fayor  of 
making  voters  or  jurors  of  negroes,  nor  of 
qualifying  them  to  hold  oflBce,  nor  to  inter- 
marry with  white  people  ;  and  I  will  say  in 
addition  to  this  that  there  is  a  physical  differ- 
ence between  the  white  and  black  races  which 
I  believe  will  forever  forbid  the  two  races 
living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  political 
equality.  *  *        I  will,  to  the  very 

last,  stand  by  the  law  of  this  State,  which  for- 
bids the  marrying  of  white  people  with 
negroes.' 

But  fellow-citizens,  I  attach  bat  very  little 
consequence  to  such  things  as  I  have  been 
reading  to  you.  They  will  furnish  Mr.  Lin- 
coln an  excuse,  if  he  needs  one,  for  doing  what 
he  will  be  compelled  to  do,  if  he  had  no  excuse. 
He  cannot,  as  President,  trample  on  the  liber- 
ties and  rights  of  the  people  of  the  South.  No 
President  can  do  that.  Nobody  believes  that 
it  can  be  done.  No  portion  of  the  American 
people  will  ever  submit  to  oppressdon,  not  even 
to  tho  little  finger  of  tyranny.  Let  insult  and 
oppression  come,  and  the  peeple  will  not  need 


14 


to  be  told  of  it  by  the  politicians  and  orators, 
Bor  will  they  need  to  be  told  what  they  ought 
to  do.  They  will  show  that  they  are  no 
degenerate  descendants  of  a  noble  ancestry. 
The  old  spirit  of  Henry,  and  Hancock  and 
Adams,  the  older  spirit  of  Pym  and  Hampden 
and  Vane  will  display  itself,  and  tyranny ,  let  it 
take  what  shape  it  may,  will  cower  before  il. 

What  will  be  Mr.  Lincoln's  position  when  he 
assumes  the  oflBce  of  President,  if  he  ever  does  ? 
He  will  first  stand  up  in  the  presence  of  the 
people,  and  wtth  his  hand  on  the  Holy  Evan- 
gelists will  swear  to  execute  (he  laws,  not  as 
he  thinks  they  should  be,  but  as  they  are. 
^Vill  he  fling  his  conscience  and  his  honor  into 
the  dust,  to  be  trampled  on  by  ihe  miserable 
fanatics  who  have  helped  to  elevate  him  to 
power?  Will  he  not  like  every  other  man  of 
intellect  who  is  elevated  to  high  position, 
desire  to  vindicate  his  fitness  for  such  elevation 
by  so  acting  as  to  have  some  claims  to  be  res- 
pected by  his  fftUowmeu  ?  I  believe  that  he 
will  no  sooner  be  President  than  you  will  see 
that  "irrepressible  cenflict"  of  which  our 
Governor  speaks  in  his  letter  to  the  citizens 
of  Huntsville — not  the  irrepressible  conflict  of 
which  so  much  has  been  said  and  written,  but 
an  irrepressible  conflict  between  his  oath,  his 
duty  and  the  overwhelming  necessities  of  his 
position  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  unconstitu- 
tional statutes  of  the  Northern  States  on  the 
ether.  He  will  be  brought  in  instant  con- 
tact with  the  herd  of  fanatics  who  will  nrsce 
upon  him  the  violation  of  tho  laws,  and  he 
will  sweep  them  at  once  from  his  path,  or 
he  will  sink  beneath  the  scorn  and  con- 
tempt of  mankind.  But  if  he  were  so  in- 
clined, what  power  has,  he  to  injure  the 
-South  ?  The  Federal  Judiciary  is  true  to  the 
Constitution.  There  is  a  majo'rity  opposed  to 
his  administration  in  the  House  ofRepresen- 
tatives.  The  Senate,  the  great  bulwark  of 
the  rights  of  the  States,  is  true  to  its  great 
trust,  and  will  be  an  effectual  check 
upom  the  President  He  cannot  organize 
his  administration,  unless  he  permits  all 
the  incumbents  to  remain  in  office,  without  the 
consent  of  the.  Senate.  He  cannot  put  -a  man 
in  your  Post  office — he  cannot  appoint  a  mar- 
shall  of  a  District— he  cannot  fill  a  vacancy  on 
the  bench— he  cannot  put  himself  in  official 
communication  with  foreign  powers,  without 
the  consent  of  the  Senate:  Then  why  plunge 
into  hasty  revolution  ?  W'hat  arc  the  real  and 
pressing  greivances  ?  There  are  imaginary 
and  future  ones  without  rumber,  but  what  are 
the  real  ones,  upon  which  a  man  can  put  his 
finger  ?  Upon  my  werd,  Ikuowof  no  violation 
of  the  Constitution,  except  the  refusal  of  the 
Northern  States  to  permit  the  due  execution 
of  the  fugitive  slave  law.  This  is  a  real  and 
palpable  violation;  I  admit  it  in  its  full  force- 
where  is  the  man  that  can  point  you  to  another? 
We  are  told  of  John  Brown  raids,  of  the  forays 
of  Montgomery,  of  tampering  with  slaves  and 
the  like.  These  evils  belong  to  the  present  and 
to  the  past,  and  are  not  chargeable  to  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. It  Mr.  Breckinridge  had  been  elected.  I 
presume  these  things  would  not  have  been 
urged  as  caus-s  sufficient  for  a  dissolution  of 
the  Union.  But  it  is  said  that  the  election  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  cuts  off  all  hope  that  these  griev- 
ances will  have  an  end.    It  may  be  that  mat- 


ters will  not  mend,  but  we  cannot  know  that 
they  will  not.  Why  not  wait  and  see.  and  deal 
with  facts  instead  of  acting  in  so  grave  a  matter 
upon  our  fears. 

For  myself,  I  believe  that  now  for  the  first 
time,  we  may  hope  to  settle  this  slavery  ques- 
tion. It  was  the  inevitable  destiny  of  the  ques- 
tion, from  the  moment  that  political  parties 
seized  upon  it  as  the  field  upon  which  to  fight 
the  battle  for  power,  that  it  should  become  sec- 
tional, and  swallow  up  all  other  questions. 
Now  the  battle  has  been  fought  upon  it,  and 
the  power  and  the  patronage  of  the  Govern- 
ment, as  the  fruits  of  victory,  will  pass  into  the 
hands  of  the  North.  Now,  if  the  South  pur- 
sues a  wise  policy,  if  the  slave-holding  States 
unite  and  deliberate,  and  calmly  and  resolutely 
declare  upon  what  terms  tney  are  willing  to 
continue  in  the  Union,  the  question  may  be 
settled.  The  people  of  the  North  will  now  be 
called  upon  to  consider  what  they  will  do  with 
their2victory.  Let  the  Southern  States  tell  them 
what  they  must  do  with  it  in  order  to  preserve 
the  Union.  The  battle  must  be  fought  in  the 
North.  There  are  thousands  there  true  o  the 
Constitution,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  will 
bring  into  conflict  the  opposing  elements  in  the 
northernStates,and  we  will  soon  find  out  which 
is  the  strongest  ;  we  will  soon  know»  whether 
abolitionism  is  to  triumph  over  the  Constitu- 
tion or  not. 

I  said  that  I  admitted  in  its  full  force,  the 
violation  of  the  Constitution  by  the  enactment 
of  "  personal  liberty  bills  "  in  the  Northern 
States:  by  their  refusal,  in  good  faith  and  in 
accordance  with  their  Constitutional  obliga- 
tions, to  permit  the  due  execution  of  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  law.  But  fellow-citizens,  this  is  a 
grievance  which  has  existed  for  years.  Nei- 
ther Mr.  Filmore,  nor  Mr.  Pierce,  Presidents 
true  to  the  Constitution,  were  able  fully  to  en- 
force that  law.  Mr.  Buchanan  has  not  been 
able  to  do  it.  I  do  not  mean  to  arjue  that  the 
wrong  is  any  the  less  because  it  is  of  long  con- 
tinuance. But  we  have  not  heretofore  consid- 
ered this  grievance  a  ground  for  a  dissolution  of 
the  Union.  This  is  a  wrong  which  Texas  feels 
but  lightly.  We  lose  comparatively  none  of 
our  slaves  to  the  abolitionists.  A  few  slip  away 
now  and  then  to  our  Mexican  friends,  but  none 
of  them  take  the  underground  rail-road  route. 
What  then  would  be  the  part  of  wisdom  for 
Texas,  so  far  as  this  question  is  concerned  ? — 
Would  it  not  be  to  consult  with  Virginia,  Ken- 
tucky, Maryland,  and  Missouri,  States  which 
are  suffering  heavily  from  this  wrong  ?  I 
would  read  to  you  portions  of  a  letter  of  Gov- 
ernor McGoflSn  of  Kentucky,  but  there  is  not 
time.  He  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  the  cotton 
States  to  stand  by  the  border  slave  States  in 
this  emergency.  He  eays  that  Kentucky  will 
not  abate  a  jot  or  tittle  of  her  Constitutional 
rights,  and  he  appeals  to  us  "  to  stand  by  her, 
and  not  desert  her,  in  her  exposed  perilous 
border  position."  Do  you  believe  that  Virgin- 
ia will  succumb  ?  That  she  will  sacrifice  her 
rights  and  her  honor?  Never.  Then  what 
shall  we  do  ?  If  we  act  hastily  and  indepen- 
dently of  those  States,  either  dragging  them 
after  us,  or  leaving  them  without  support,  will 
they  not  have  reason  to  say,  and  will  not  His- 


15 


tory  say  tnat  we  deserted  them  in  the  day  of 
their  sorest  need  ?  I  say  let's  stand  by  them, 
consult  with  them,  and  if  possible  act  with 
them.  Let  us  not  withdraw  our  delegations 
from  Congress  while  the  States  are  delibera- 
ting. Let  U3  meet  our  foes  on  the  constitutional 
battle-field,  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  and  fight 
out  the  fight,  even  to  the  bitter  end. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  hear  it  frequently  said,  that 
if  we  do  not  resist  now,  we  never  can  resist. 
By  this  is  meant  that  we  must  dissolve  the 
Union  now  or  never.  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln will  inaugurate  a  system  by  which  the 
public  mind  of  the  South  will  be  corrupted 
that  abolition  emissaries  will  be  put  into  all 
our  offices,  and  that  abolition  documents  will 
be  circulated  and  all  that.  I  believe  these 
dangers  are  imaginary.  All  men  who  take  office 
in  the  South  under  Mr.  Lincoln's  administra- 
tion, will  know  that  they  are  closely  watched 
And  whom  will  they  contaminate  ?  They  will 
have  to  contaminate  yt)u  and  me.  This  argu- 
ment, fellow-citizens,  amounts  simply  to  a  dec- 
laration that  we  cannot  trust  ourselves;  that  is 
the  plain  English  of  it.  Now  I  venture  the 
prediction  that  if  this  Union  lasts,  you  will  see 
fewer  Yankees  amongst  us,  fewer  of  the  real 
genuine  wooden-nutmeg  fellows,  than  you  ever 
saw  before  in  your  lives.  They  will  have  a 
greater  dread  of  the  climate  of  the  Southern 
States  for  the  next  four  years  than  they  ever 
had  before.  They  know  very  well  that  there  is 
a  higher  law  in  the  South  as  well  as  in  the 
North. 

But  I  must  conclude,  and  in  doing  so,  I  coun- 
sel moderation, — not  that  moderation  which 
fixes  the  bayonet  and  unsheathes  the  sword,but 
that  moderation  which  thinks,and  thinking  acts 
Fellow-citizens,  all  history  attests  that  appeals 
to  the  passions  are  a  thousand  times  more  pow- 
erful than  appeals  to  reason.  Pardon  me, 
while  I  give  an  instance.  Many  of  you  have 
read  of  the  attempt  made  by  the  Stuart  Prince 
in  1745  to  regain  the  British  Crown.  He  land- 
ed in  Scotland,  and  summoned  the  Scottish 
chieftains  to  meet  him.  Amongst  the  first  to 
obey  the  call  was  the  celebrated  Lochiel,  of 
Cameron.  While  on  his  way  to  meet  the 
Prince,  he  had  an  interview  with  his  brother. 
He  told  his  brother  that  he  intended  to  dissu- 
ade the  Prince  from  making  the  effort  to  regain 
his  father's  crown,  and  to  advise  him  to  re- 
turn to  France.  His  brother  told  him  to 
write  to  the  Prince  ;  for  said  he  *'  I  know  you 
better  than  you  know  yourself,  and  if  you  meet 
the  Prince,  he  will  make  you  do  whatever  he 
pleases."  But  Lochiel  said  that  his  mind  was 
made  up,  and  that  he  would  not  join  the  re- 
bellion. He  met  the  Prince  and  expressed  to 
him  his  determination.  He  told  him  that  it 
would  be  a  hopelfss  undertaking  and  would 
bring  ruin  on  all  who  engaged  in  it  ,  Charles 
used  every  argument,  but  the  chieftain  main- 
tained his  resolution.  Charles  Ihea  used  the 
only  argument  that  remained — the  most  pow- 
erful of  all — an  apppal  to  the  feelings.  He 
said,  "  My  father  has  told  me  that  you  were  the 
firmest  of  his  friends  ;  but  I  do  not  find  it  so. 
I  have  however  made  up  my  mind.  I  will 
raise  my  standard   and  recover  the  crown    of 


my  ancestors,  or  perish  in  the  attempt.  Lo- 
chiel may  stay  at  home,  if  he  will,  and  learn 
from  the  news-papers  the  fate  of  his  Prince." 
What  was  the  effect?  "Not  so,"  exclaimed 
the  gallant  and  loyal  chieftain—'-'  Not  so,_  if 
you  raise  your  banner,  I  will  follow  it  with 
every  man  over  whom  birth  or  fortune  has  giv- 
en me  influence."  And  he  did  follow  it  to  the 
fatal  catastrophe  at  Culloden,  where  Cumber- 
land rode  over  the  Scottish  array,  his  horses 
hoofs  dripping  with  blood.  All  the  historians 
of  the  period  agre  that  the  other  Scottish 
chieftains  had  determined  to  follow  the  exam- 
ple of  Lochiel,  and  if  he  had  followed  the  con- 
victions ol  his  judgment,there  would  have  been 
no  rebellion ;  and  the  story  of  the  sufferings 
growing  out  of  that  celebrated  campaign— 
the  bloody  slaughter  of  Culloden,  and  the 
atrocities  which  won  for  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland the  title  of  "  The  Butcher,'"  would  have 
had  no  place  on  the  page  of  history.  Such 
are  the  results  of  appeals  to  the  feelings.  Let 
us,  in  this  hour  of  gloom,  take  counsel  o^ 
reason. 

I  beseech  you  not  to  accustom  yourselves  to 
thinking  too  lightly  of  the  evils  of  Disunion. 
The  greatest  men  this  country  could  ever 
1  boast  were  of  the  opinion  that  if  the  present 
'  Union  shall  ever  be  dissovled,  it  will  be  im- 
possible to  form  another.  The  men  who  form- 
ed the  present  Union,  acting  under  the  pressure 
of  great  necessity,  and  entertaining  the  greatest 
possible  good  feeling  for  each  other  and  for  the 
whole  country,  experienced  so  many  difficul- 
ties, that  they  almost  unanimously  expressed 
the  opinion  that  if  this  Union  should  ever  be 
dissolved,  another  could  not  be  formed.  So 
thought  General  Washington  — so  thought 
General  Jackson.  It  is  possible,  barely  pos- 
sible that  under  the  guidance  of  wise  and  tem- 
perate counsels,  the  States  might  separate 
without  war.  If  a  separation  be  brought 
about  by  hasty  and  inconsiderate  action,  war 
will  be  inevitable.  It  does  not  become  us  to 
close  our  eyes  to  the  facts.  We  should  look 
the  future  fully  in  the  face,  and  realize  the 
truth  that  the  path  which  leads  to  hasty  dis- 
union, terminates  quickly  in  war  and  revolu- 
tion. I  ask  again,  if  we  are  suffering  s^:ch 
wrongs  and  injuries  as  to  justify  us  in  encoun- 
tering the  evils  of  war  ?  War  under  any  cir- 
cumstances is  bad  enough,  but  civil  war— war 
between  the  two  great  sections  of  this  Union  ! 
My  mind  staggers  under  the  contemplation  of 
its  accumulated  horrors.  Nearly  fifty  years 
ago,  when  the  country  was  on  the  eve  ef  a  war 
with  England,  and  when  we  were  compara- 
tively an  united  neople,  John  Randolph  said 
on  the  floor  of  Congress,  that  the  night-bell 
never  tolled  for  fire  in  Richmond,  that  the 
mother  did  not  hug  her  infant  closer  to  her 
bosom.  Let  war  come  now— civil  war,  bitter 
and  merciless  as  civil  strife  always  is,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  forsee  what  atrocities  may  be 
enacted.  There  are  thousands  of  men  of 
Northern  birth,  now  living  in  the  Southern 
States,  who  in  the  event  of  a  collision  between 
the  two  sections,  would  stand  by  the  South  to 
the  last  drop  of  their  blood.  Shall  we  rashly 
and  inconsiderately  take  a  step  that  can  never 


16 


be  retraced,  nnd  which  will  involve  this  class 
of  our  citizens  in  fratricidal  war?  It  is  no 
great  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  conceive  of 
Southern  citizens  of  Northern  birth,  standing 
in  battle  array  against  citizens  of  the  North. 
This  is  something  which  we  may  live  to  see. 
Let  us  suppose  a  man  so  situated.  Think  you 
not  that  he  would  in  that  dreadful  hour,  ques- 
tion with  himself,  whether  or  not  the  awful 
calamity  might  have  been  averted  by  modera- 
tion and  forbearance,  by  calm  nud  deliberate 
counsel:^  ?  Let  us  suppose  such  a  man  stricken 
do^v^  iu  battle  !  Would  not  his  last  moments 
be  embittered  by  the  recollections  that  would 
rush  upon  him  ?  Where  would  his  thoughts 
be  ?  At  first  with  his  wife  and  children  in  his 
Southern  home — but  as  the  conflict  swept  by, 
and  as  the  tide  of  life  ebbed  slowly  away, 
memory  would  carry  him  back  to  the  days  of 
his  childhood,  when,  with  sister  and  brother, 
he  played  bj  the  banks  of  the  Merrimac,  the 
Connecticut  or  the  Susquehanna.  He  would 
think  perhaps  of  the  day  when  his  mother  led 
him  by  the  hand  to  hear  the  great  orator  speak 
at  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  monu- 
ment which  marks  the  spot  where  the  first 
great  battle  of  the  Revolution  was  fought ;  and 
of  how  his  father  held  him  up  in  the  crowd  to 
catch  a  sight  of  the  illustrious  foreigner,  who, 
in  the  prime  of  life,  left  titled  ease,  and  crossed 
the  ocean,  to  fight  by  the  aide  of  Washington, 
the  battles  of  freedom.  But  I  will  not  pursue 
these  thoughtg.  God  in  his  good  Providence 
forbid  that  such  calamities  should  ever  come 
upon  the  country,  as  would  follow  in  the  train 
of  civil  war. 

Let  us  be  true  to  ourBelves,  let  us  not  be 
made  to  believe  that  it  is  timidity  or  cowardice 
to  use  all  honorable  means  to  ehun  the  fearful 
evils  of  Disunion.  Let  us  not  cast  away  our 
glorious  inheritance  of  freedom,  because  our 
political  sky  is  not  always  bright.  Let  us  re- 
member that  all  nations  that  have  attained  to 
power  and  renown,  have  experienced  vicissi- 
tudes of  prosperous  and  adverse  fortune.  Let 
XLS  reflect  that  our  troubles  must  necessarily 
come  from  within,  because  we  are  so  happily 
situated  as  to  be  proof  against  all  troubles 
from  without.  Let  us  realize  the  truth  that 
we  have  already  exerted  an  immense  influence 
for  good  in  the  world  ;  that  our  example  has 
animated  the  nations  of  Europe  to  contend  for 
their  liberties.  Let  us  not  now  put  into  the 
mouths  of  the  friends  of  arbitrary  government, 
an  argument  more  {powerful  than  a  hundred 
thousand  bayonets.  The  asserters  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  divine  right  of  Kings,  appear  to  be 
preparing  for  a  last  struggle  with  the  nations 
who  are  longing  to  be  free.  Despots  were  in 
conference  but  yesterday  at  Warsaw.  Russia 
has  withdrawn  her  minister  from  Turin,  be- 
cause the  King  of  Sardinia  has  interfered  in 
the  Italian  Revolution.  The  people  of  Italy, 
long  oppressed,  have  at  last,  with  a  spirit 
worthy  of  their  ancestors,  resolved  to  be  free. 
Let  UB  not  deprive  them  of  the  moral  support 


of  our  example.  I  believe  that  the  influence 
of  our  free  institutions  upon  the  European  na- 
tions, has  never  been  properly  appreciated. 
We  have  beheld  the  efforts  of  oppressed  nations 
to  recover  their  liberties.  We  have  seeu  revo- 
lutions rage  and  pass  away,  and  the  people 
laft  to  wear  their  chains.  But  their  chains 
have  all  the  while  become  lighter,  and  are  fast 
wearing  out.  We  will  probably  soon  behold 
another  great  great  struggle.  But  if  it  comes, 
it  ^ill  be  seen  that  the  principles  of  liberty 
have  gained  strength  since  1815.  If  another 
Holy  Alliance  seeks  to  rivet  again  the  chains 
of  Italy,  it  will  receive  no  support  from  the 
ships  and  gold  of  England.  And  France,  aided 
by  ^consolidated  Italy,  under  the  lead  of  her 
soldier  King,  will  renew  at  the  expense  of  Aus- 
tria, Russia  and  Prussia,  the  glories  of  Marengo, 
and  Austerlitz,  and  Ulm,  and  Jena,  and  Fried- 
land. 

Let  us  in  the  meantime  seek,  by  wise  and 
moderate  cousels,  to  restore  peace  to  our  dis- 
tracted country.  Pardon  me  for  the  repetition, 
but  once  more  let  me  urge  you  to  shun,  if  pos- 
sible, the  thorny  path  of  revolution.  Ladies, 
you  have  evinced  by  coming  here  to-day,  that 
you  are  not  indifferent  to  the  events  which  are 
transpiring.  You  cannot  be  indifferent.  To 
those  of  you  who  are  wives  and  mothers,  life 
has  become  a  great  reality.  Remember  that 
war,  unless  undertaken  to  redress  great  wrongs 
or  in  the  necessary  detence  of  great  rights,  is 
opposed  to  all  the  best  intere8ts;of  humanity.  It 
erects  no  asylums  for  the  insane,  the  blind,  the 
dumb  and  deaf.  It  does  not  spread  the  sail  of 
commerce  to  the  wind.  It  has  no  respect  for  seed 
time  and  harvest.  It  brings  not  plenty  to  tht) 
board,  nor  cheerfulness  to  the  fireside.  I  con- 
jure you  then  to  use  the  influence  with  which 
Heaven  has  so  richly  endowed  you,  to  preser- 
ve peace  and  order  in  our  land.  And  if  per- 
chance there  be  some  one  very  dear  to  you, 
who  thinks  that  change  and  revolution  may 
bring  to  him  honors  and  renown,  speak  to  him, 
speak  to  him  in|the  presence  of  your  little  ones, 
and  tell  him  to  put  away  such  thoughts,  and 
to  be  content  to  tread  the  humble  path  of  duty. 

Men  of  Texas,  let  us  prove  that  we  appreci- 
ate the  government  under  which  we  live.  Let 
us  make  a  sincere  and  noble  effort  to  preserve 
it.  Let  us  keep  reason  in  the  ascendant.  Let 
us  tread  passion  under  foot.  Let  us  so  act, 
that  the  world  and  posterity  will  allow  that 
in  a  great  crisis  we  behaved  like  men.  And  if 
the  evil  day  must  come  when  we  shall  be  com- 
pelled to  give  up  this  Union,  or  to  meet  the 
calamities  of  war,  let  us  all  be  united  like 
brothers.  Let  us  hush  all  our  differences,  and 
without  distinction  of  party  or  class,  rally  in 
defence  of  our  rights  and  honor,  as  we  read  in 
the  spirit-stiring  poetry  of  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
that  the  stripling  left  the  unburied  corpse  of 
his  sire,  and  the  bridegroom  the  side  of  his 
virgin  bride,  when  the  Fiery  Cross  summoned 
Clan  Alpine  to  battle. 


Trintedat  ih^InteUigmcer  Book  Office,  Austin^  Texas. 


